Modern rock band Skillet have released a new video for their track ‘Feel Invincible’ from their forthcoming album Unleashed, due out on August 5th. You can watch the video at this link or below:
Frontman John Cooper commented on Unleashed:
“I wanted to make an album that could make people feel the music. I always aim to write songs to which people can relate, but this time I wanted to see not only how the songs would connect lyrically, but also how they’d connect musically.”
Unleashed will be the follow-up to 2013’s Rise album which earned the band a Grammy nomination. Along with the band teamwork of husband and wife John (lead vocals, bass) and Korey Cooper (rhythm guitar, keyboards, programming, backing vocals), Seth Morrison (lead guitar) and Jen Ledger (drums, vocals), they worked with a production team of Brian Howes, (Daughtry, Halestorm, Nickelback), Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch), Neal Avron (Twenty One Pilots, Walk The Moon, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park) and Seth Mosley (Newsboys, TobyMac) on Unleashed. Pre-orders for the album are now live:
Once again Hellyeah has proven why they are dubbed with the name “supergroup”. This all American heavy metal band consists of many of the biggest names of metal to date. Including vocalist Chad Gray of Mudvayne, former guitarist Tom Maxwell of Nothingface, bass player Kyle Sanders (Bloodsimple/Monstro), guitarist Christian Brady, and former Pantera drumming legend Vinnie Paul. Release their fifth album since their debut in 2007, entitled Unden!able (Eleven Seven Music).
This in your face power house of an album will get your body begging for the pit. From beginning to end the album shows the raw talent of the five member team. Fast paced riffs, wicked blastbeats, brutal break downs, and demonic vocals, this thirteen track album reminds us of what it means to be “Born and Breed a metalhead”.
The album opens up with ‘!’. This powerful intro begins raising the intensity inside your body until you are slapped in the face by track 2 ‘X’. This track is full of a strong lyrical rhythm accompanied with powerful double bass, strong break downs, and mind shredding riffs. Then it leads my personal favorite song on the album track 3 ‘Scratch a lie’. Chad Grey brings those blood chilling screeches, and fast paced lyrics that made him the monster he is today. This song will make you want start a mosh pit at your family reunion. The fourth track ‘Be Undin!able’ is what I like to call the anthem song. Most albums have them. It is the song where it seems to bring the crowd together, though heavy and still has the possibility to knock your teeth out, it’s a song with a positive message and encourages us to stand together as one.
Next song ‘Human’ was the first single off the album. This song gave you the sneak peek of this monstrous album. Though not as heavy as the rest, it still gives you the adrenaline pumping, head banging feeling the rest of the album gives you. The album slows down a bit with the next couple tracks. Though still pure metal, it is just not as in your face as the beginning half. ‘Leap of Faith’, ‘Blood Plague’, the Phil Collins cover of “I Don’t Care Anymore” and ‘Live or Die’ bring you back to the typical Hellyeah style, the heavy metal outlaw, showing a little bit of that southern side of metal. ‘I Don’t Care Any More’ features some leads courtesy of Vinnie Paul’s brother, Dimebag Darrell Abbott, making an appearance via tapes from beyond the grave.
Then there is the track ‘Love Falls’. A melodic ballad that pulls at the heart-strings. Chads’ lyrics transport you to a heartbreak we have all received before, showing his embarrassment and humanity. It’s a refreshing song in the midst of such chaos and brutality. Then the sirens fill your ears. A short intro ’10-34′ that leads into a riot, ‘STARTARIOT’. This song alone makes me want to bleed in a pit. The impact of the drums, the lyrics, guitar, amazing bass riffs, all of it. It’s the perfect storm for a circle pit. Lastly, ‘Grave’. The last song of the album. Just as strong and in your face but has a nice fade out giving you a sense of rejuvenation. Like you just won a war. All and all this album is strong, fast, brutal, and most importantly, HEAVY!
In closing. This album is a must have for any metal fan. It shows the roots and development of our beloved genre. Combining southern and heavy metal together into a sweet harmony of chaos. I recommend this album to anyone and it will be in my playlist for a while. Did they make a great album. I say Hellyeah.
If life is a journey, Bring Me The Horizon are living one helluva good one. From hated deathcore upstarts, bottled and attacked when playing support shows, to the slick, progressive metalcore of their breakthrough album Sempiternal (RCA/Epitaph), their career has been one of continuous upwards movement, both creatively but also commercially, a trend that is perpetuated by their excellent fifth album That’s The Spirit (RCA/Columbia).
While BMTH are no longer a “metal” band (while they haven’t been for a while, they’ve truly stepped outside those bounds now) their continued exploration of a poppier, slicker sound unreservedly suits them. Leaving behind the trappings of scenes metalcore and deathcore, That’s The Spirit takes the band into unchartered territories of song-writing and production to create an excellent modern rock album.
Starting the album with the subdued build of ‘Doomed’, the tone is set for something special as the reflective piece resets expectations, all subtle electronica and disseminated guitars. Partner in crime ‘Happy Song’ picks things up, utilizing a child vocal hook much like Faith No More’s ‘Be Aggressive’ before a lurching, thick riff courtesy of Lee Malia, who really shines as a diverse and clever player across the spectrum of the album, backs up the songs eponymous hook.
Smartly, …Horizon have continued their evolution, replacing the frenetic punkcore style of There Is A Hell… (Visible Noise), via Sempiternal, with a more controlled, dynamic and poppier approach; an approach that has led to a thousand-fold improvement in their song-writing. Whatever you do, don’t confuse replacing aggression with control as a sign of weakness – there is a powerful energy throughout.
They always had an x-factor, now they have refinement and intelligence and know how to channel that spark into top quality songs. Tracks like ‘Avalanche’ are enhanced by the full integration of keyboard player Jordan Fish adding strings, synth motifs and subtle electronica to back up a beast that swirls from down to upbeat, and another strong chorus, led by the excellent Oli Sykes.
Only the sedate ‘Follow You’ shows a slight dip in quality and there are highlights throughout; no less than ‘Throne’ with its poppy synth intro and Linkin Park trappings, a truly uplifting pop metal anthem. ‘True Friends’ and ‘Blasphemy’ BMTH show they’ve lost none of their cynicism, but more than that, they demonstrate the progression of Sykes from screamer to genuine lead singer, with powerful throaty moments leading to sweeping choruses, and he combines the two on the rockier catchy ‘What You Need’, a track fuelled by a juddering stadium-filling death rock bass line. ‘Drown’, initially released a year ago to prepare the way for the new BMTH sound, is an expertly crafted modern alternative rock song. Final track ‘Oh No’ closes the circle, a reflective yet upbeat poppy piece, reminiscent of the best moments of 30 Seconds To Mars, with Woah-ohs and dance synths closing things off with a smile.
Kudos must also go to Fish and Sykes for a stunning production job, with all the touches and trappings of the best pop productions balled up into huge rock sound. Influences may have switched from Norma Jean and At The Gates, but by moving beyond their contemporaries in quality, style and songwriting, BMTH now stand in class of one; truly at the top of the mountain.
If Suicide Season (Visible Noise/Epitaph) was their rebirth, There Is A Hell… the teenage ruttings of a band truly finding themselves and Sempiternal their coming of age album, That’s The Spirit is Horizon maturing into a fine young adult, confident, strong and secure in themselves and the knowledge that they are now master craftsmen.
Successfully combining every good aspect of alternative rock and metal of the last fifteen years, That’s The Spirit is Bring Me The Horizon’s “Black Album” moment.
For the last 10 years, Antwerp’s hardest working and hardest rocking band Diablo Blvd have been plying their rock n roll trade to a steadily increasing level of acclaim and popularity. 2015 should see their stock rise even further, with the support slot on the forthcoming Epica European tour being confirmed. It’s no great surprise then to see this timely (if fairly rapid) reissue of their third album, Follow the Deadlights, from their new worldwide distribution partner, Nuclear Blast.
Follow The Deadlights is a solid, muscular hard rock album with echoes of Black Label Society, Corrosion of Conformity (the more eagle-eyed among you will have already spotted where they got their moniker), The Cult and the occasional flourish of mid period Danzig which, I’m sure you will concur, is a fairly decent set of influences.
Opening track ‘Beyond the Veil’ comes rumbling in, drums aplenty, akin to what might happen if BLS met Alter Bridge on a dark night of the musical soul. ‘Rise Like Lions’ has pretty much the same opening drum led flourish but this time with a bigger riffs and greater level of ambition; ‘Get Up 9’ ups the tempo somewhat, a driving and burly number with a healthy dynamic. The title track, following the well-thumbed rule book of hard rock and heavy metal, has a massive chorus and set of guitar solos and ‘Son of Cain’ ticks every single one of the melodic hard rock boxes and a few more that you didn’t think needed ticking. In a good way, though. ‘We are Legion’ is as preposterous as it is infectious, leaving no cliché unturned but you can’t help but be carried along with the band’s enthusiasm and earnestness. Who cares that you’ve heard this stuff a thousand times before?
It would be really easy to be cynical about records like Follow the Deadlights. Yes, I’ve heard it all before and yes, the structure of the record is as predictable as fireworks on Bonfire Night and yes, sometimes you can see the joins but at the same time, you can see how these guys have earned their slots with Epica and, late last year, Machine Head. Follow the Deadlights sounds highly accomplished and there has, self-evidently been a sizeable effort in bringing together the band’s influences, creative juice and energy into the ten songs on offer here. Follow the Deadlights is probably not going to set the world on fire but as an exercise in modern hard rock and heavy metal, it does a solid job.
Whatever your personal journey with In Flames, they rank as one of metals most influential bands of the last twenty years. Along with peers At The Gates and Dark Tranquillity they spearheaded the Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal attack of the Nineties and by 1999, you couldn’t move without being stabbed in the ears by jester clones. Ten years later, despite some inconsistent outputs of their own, they had proven to be a lead influence in the most popular development in the heavy metal sound of the new millennium – metalcore.
The seminal, early, albums of In Flames were all about jagged riffing and scything twin-guitars jostling with folk influences. Clayman and Reroute To Remain were about taking that step into the mainstream, adding chug and progressing their sound. Come Clarity was the ace that defined what they had become. Eleventh album Siren Charms (Sony) is all about the songs.
While In Flames started out as a guitar band, the role of vocals has become more prevalent in their sound throughout their twenty-one year evolution; from throaty roars, to a husky half-sing, to Siren Charms being Anders Friden’s album. Come clarity and come confidence of voice, reminiscent of Brandon Flowers at times, predominantly clean he leads this album in the way a frontman and vocalist should, bridging and building interesting and, at times, vulnerable verses into anthemic choruses. The dual/duel guitars are still there, just used more cerebrally, sparingly, but available to provide the bands’ trademark.
At first listen ‘In Plain View’ is an underwhelming opener, electronica seguing into a rolling riff, stripping down then pushing off, but repeated plays bring out its qualities, before ‘Everything’s Gone’ barrels in, the most aggressive track on the album, a combination of punches provided by chromatic chords leading to a Slipknot meets Marilyn Manson chugged verse and strong chorus, before the real tone of the album is opened up with a hat-trick of great dark pop metal songs (‘Paralysed’, ‘Through Oblivion’, ‘With Eyes Wide Open’), between them referencing Clayman, Killswitch Engage, Katatonia, The Killers and 30 Seconds To Mars (A Beautiful Lie / This Is War era) in a joyous gamut of aggressive modern rock music. ‘When The World Explodes’ spits out metalcore 101 before a left at the traffic lights swerve turns it into a gothic metal classic with vocals of opera singer Emilia Feldt.
Continuing strongly, the band hit a salvo of ‘Rusted Nail’ with its bouncing guitars, electronica, and build via traditional In Flames guitar harmony to an anthemic chorus and ‘Dead Eyes’, which starts slower before hitting a hands in the air refrain. ‘Monsters In The Ballroom’ unfurls into a beautiful, sprawled chorus of its own via some tighter, thrashier guitaring, while, last up, ‘Filtered Truth’ flips from a casual AC/DC riff to a metalcore rhythmic verse, into a strong chorus with the twin leads dancing in and out behind, before spiralling away to close the album.
With Reroute To Remain In Flames showed they would not spend their career rehashing their earlier albums. They left that to countless others. Instead they’ve refined and developed their approach to songwriting, working on creating a set of excellent dark pop metal songs to the point where they can add Siren Charms, and its collection of anthems, to The Jester Race, Clayman, Reroute To Remain and Come Clarity – each distinctive from the other yet all obviously “In Flames” – in the list of classics under their belt.
