Halestorm

Into The Wild Life

Written by: PP on 18/07/2015 00:23:53

Why Halestorm have reached mainstream recognition as a band is beyond me. To date, they've released nothing but mediocre radio rock albums with a hard rock twist, the only differentiating factor from other generic hard rock bands being their female vocalist Lzzy Hale. Granted, her voice occasionally breaks into a rougher territory and does have an element of power to it that's admirable considering her gender, leaving many male contemporaries in its shadow. But the songs themselves? Yawn.

Opener "Scream" is a very good example. It's formulaic, lacks a good melody, and feels like a Papa Roach c-side (no offense meant to Papa Roach by the way). While "I Am The Fire" is at least a decent hard rock track, "Sick Individual" is about as sell-out as it gets with it's radio-friendly pop chorus that can best be defined as trash. For the undersigned, it's frustratingly annoying. Why's that, you ask? Well, Lzzy Hale's vocal style has always been an acquired taste, and nowhere else is it clearer than here, where her high-pitched squeaks do no favours for anyone. Yet this is exactly what the band have been doing on both "Halestorm" and "The Strange Case Of...", which is why I'm sitting here with a giant question mark on my face as to why third album "Into The Wild Life" is once again in the midst of a media hype circus. The vast majority of songs are boring radio rock songs with little edge aside from the guitar distortion and occasional heavy metal undertones, but who are we kidding here? This is a pop band dressed in rock band clothes exposed by the songs themselves. The piano-driven ballad "Dear Daughter" is cringe-worthy, for instance, and "New Modern Love" isn't much better. At least "Mayhem" is played with an aggressive twist and features Lzzy reaching into semi-screams during its chorus.

Overall though, "Into The Wild Life" is about as interesting as an album by Dead By April. Nothingsaying pop metal for the masses that lacks the intricacies of what is generally considered quality music even in this genre. It sounds huge given the major label production budget, but the songs are seriously lacking. Like I said earlier, yawn.

5

Download: I Am The Fire, Mayhem
For the fans of: Papa Roach, Sister Sin, The Pretty Reckless, Sick Puppies
Listen: Facebook

Release date 03.04.2015
Atlantic Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.