Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(60/100)
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Alternative Press
Artistdirect
Blender
Entertainment Weekly	B-
Kerrang!
PopMatters
Rolling Stone
Spin	(5/10)
USA Today

Splinter is the seventh studio album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released on December 9, 2003. It was the first album the band released without drummer Ron Welty and also the first to have a Parental Advisory label on some album covers, even though all of their previous albums contain profanity.

Although not as successful as The Offspring's albums between Smash and Conspiracy of One, Splinter received gold certification two months after its release. The album received average reviews, but still sold reasonably well. It debuted at 30 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with around 87,000 copies sold in its first week. "Hit That" and "(Can't Get My) Head Around You" were the only two singles to accompany this album. "Spare Me the Details" was also released as a single, but charted only in New Zealand.

After spending nearly two years supporting the Conspiracy of One album, The Offspring began writing songs for Splinter in late 2002. Recording sessions for the album lasted from January to August 2003, making it the first time The Offspring had recorded an album for that long (although their next album, 2008's Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, took more than a year to record).

Uncomfortable with the idea of bringing in an immediate replacement for Welty, the band opted to have session musician Josh Freese play drums for the recording of the album, with plans to find a full-time drummer upon the record's completion.

The crowd vocals in the opening track "Neocon" were recorded at Reading Festival in 2002 during the Offspring's set on the festival's main stage. Estimates based on the capacity of Reading Festival would suggest at least 50,000 people are in the crowd.

On April Fools' Day 2003, the album's title was jokingly announced as Chinese Democrazy, a reference to the repeatedly delayed Chinese Democracy album by Guns N' Roses. Holland quipped, "You snooze, you lose. Axl ripped off my braids, so I ripped off his album title."

...
Wikipedia