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Album Review: Five Finger Death Punch – Got Your Six

By
Luke Spencer
-

While many hard rock fans thought that Five Finger Death Punch wouldn’t survive another year, out comes the band’s sixth full album Got Your Six.

https://vimeo.com/137912241

 

Text Review:

Among assault accusations, on stage meltdowns and the continued rumors of an eventual breakup, the hard rock machine that is Five Finger Death Punch continues to roll on in 2015 with the band’s sixth full album Got Your Six.

Despite the controversies and news that may sway an opinion, it is worth it to give a review of a new album from a band that has proven their success throughout the past decade.  Unbiased opinions of Five Finger Death Punch are becoming rare to find now as most people have at one point heard something from the group on the radio and formulated an opinion over the years, whether for or against.

Regardless of your opinion of the band, one thing that stands consistent is just how powerful of a voice Ivan Moody possesses.  Over the past few years Moody has shaken the very core of rock radio with his vocal strength and arguably is the greatest talent that Five Finger Death Punch has.

Over the past few years and albums though, many people have questioned just WHAT he is singing and wanting something deeper than what is being shared lyrically.  An earth shaking voice can only carry so much weight when singing generic expletives and repeating the same choruses.

But, regardless of past critiques and praise, in comes Got Your Six, and with it comes a bold statement from Moody.  During an interview earlier this year at the Download Festival, Moody stated: “I know everybody’s supposed to gloat about their own stuff, but this is our best material yet.  I swear to God.  This is our best work.”  It’s a bold statement to make that your sixth album is your best work, especially after years of so much music created.  Got Your Six was introduced several months ago with the introduction of the first single Jekyll and Hyde.

The elevation from the buildup between verse and chorus proves just how quickly Moody can flip on the switch to blow out the volume levels with his voice.  It’s a shame that half of the vocal track is almost in basic spoken rhythm under a filter.  The guitar work is solid and the solo after the bridge around 2 and a half minutes is excellent, but it takes 2 and a half minutes to get to something truly enjoyable.

In many ways, Jekyll and Hyde not only demonstrate the main issue with the album Got Your Six, but also the main issue with Five Finger Death Punch as a whole.  They are capable of SOOOO much more than what is presented here, but they only deliver generic lyrics and riffs with repeated verses and choruses.

The ironic thing about Got Your Six is that there ARE some decent songs with some gravity and depth, but they are not the songs that will be heard on the radio or live in concert.  The focus will only be on the stadium rock.

Ain’t My Last Dance feels like it had some legitimate passion and energy behind it when being recorded and more importantly when written.  This track and Wash It All Away are the few cases where Five Finger Death Punch tried to flesh out their dynamic, even with a short track time.

Songs like Ain’t My Last Dance however still result with some of the minor chorus and title chants.  That style of rock works for many people, but when that’s all an album is known for and every song has interchangeable verses, then it feels like you are being given a smaller portion when you are hoping to be filled.

Lyrically with songs like No Sudden Movement and Hell To Pay really drive this feeling home.  There is nothing substantial or solid, just a hollow group of jam tracks.  And what’s worse, is that a majority of riffs, solos, and even full tracks are instantly forgettable after hearing them.

Despite the talents that the members of Five Finger Death Punch possess, it feels that we are hearing more and more of the same repeated material with less effort for variety and a lack of effort in writing as the years go on.

Overall, Five Finger Death Punch’s sixth full album is an example of something that could have been much better for a band who is capable of more.  DIE HARD death punch fans may be satisfied, but the casual listener may want to stick with the bands backlog, as much of the material here is reminiscent of their previous works.

All Time Favorite Albums: New Radicals – Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too

By
Luke Spencer
-

A series looking at my all time favorite albums.  One of my all time favorite albums is also a huge guilty pleasure and barely definable as soft rock.  This video is dedicated to 1998’s Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too by New Radicals.

https://vimeo.com/137759790

Photos: STARSET

By
Luke Spencer
-

Photos of Starset live in Orlando, FL.  All photos were taken by Luke Spencer on 8-24-2015 at House of Blues Orlando.

Starset were asked to come on tour with Breaking Benjamin and they opened the night to a sell out crowd.  The unique thing for this show was that the entire venue was completely filled before Starset took place.  That many people waited in line for the show at House of Blues.  Their set opened with jetpacks shooting and vocals blasting.  After their performance filled with visual media and lighting effects, the band came out and greeted anyone that wanted to meet them.  A rare thing for bands with radio play now.

Photos: BREAKING BENJAMIN

By
Luke Spencer
-

Photos of Breaking Benjamin live!  All photos were taken by Luke Spencer at the House of Blues in Orlando, FL on 8/24/2015.

Breaking Benjamin took the stage in front of a sellout crowd in Orlando.  After starting their set with So Cold, it seemed that every single person in the House of Blues knew every lyric that would be sang throughout the night.  The new supporting lineup with Benjamin Burnley proved themselves with both the new songs from Dark Before Dawn and also keeping up with the past material from BB’s discography.  The crowd and band were on the same page and it took a long time to get people to leave because no one wanted the show to end.

Album Review: Beach House – Depression Cherry

By
Luke Spencer
-

Baltimore’s soft alternative darlings Beach House bring down the tempo with their fifth full album Depression Cherry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNmk-4402k

https://vimeo.com/137295594

 

Text Review:

Some alternative and soft rock groups can create the perfect serenity through their music.  Whether it’s through a combination of vocals and acoustics or the incorporation of synthesized keyboards and guitar feedback, there have been full soundtracks and dreamscapes created by some fantastic musicians.

Beach House have been at the forefront of this dreampop/soft-alternative experience since their 2006 EP.  Every time they have released a full album since, their LP’s have made it to highest of end of year award lists on multiple outlets including Pitchfork, NME, Billboard and Amazon.

One of the most distinguishing features of Beach House’s music is that only occasionally do you hear a song come to a complete end.  Victorica Legrand and Alex Scally explained it best on an interview with NPR saying that they want their music to always fade out.  In a sense, the song feels like it can go on forever.  This even comes across in their live performances where a song will fade unto quiet and then turn into the next son on the setlist.

After many successful albums comes Depression Cherry, an album that has been advertised online and promoted as a more simplistic version of what Beach House can create than in the past.  When asked by FactMag about the songs and lyrics throughout Depression Cherry, Alex Scally said: “I don’t think that the songs on this record are like the ones on our previous records, personally. They could have never existed on the previous records… (but) Anyone’s entitled to any of these things that they want to feel.”

In many ways Beach House’s music is something you have to hear to understand as it is not the typical stage format and classic band dynamic.  Depression Cherry was announced earlier this year and with the announcement came the album’s promoted single “Sparks”.

In many ways this is instantly definable as a song from Beach House by just about anyone who has heard one of their albums before.  When I first heard Sparks a few months ago I didn’t know what to think of it with the consistent static feedback and what sounds like 56k dial up sounds.  It’s not until the Legrand’s vocals start that you understand how everything fits together.

The rhythm of the synthesized drums helps carry Legrand’s whispery vocals into something peaceful.  This song takes time to grab your attention and set an atmosphere as it starts more jarring than inviting, but after about 90 seconds you understand what Beach House was going for.  And in many ways, that ideology describes many Beach House songs.

Listening to an entire album from Beach House can sometimes seem like an extremely odd experience.  While the track list goes on, you may drift off and wonder how long you’ve been listening to a song or when the tracks have changed.  But by the end of the album, you think about how fast everything just flashed by.

PPP feels like a timewarp to the days of peaceful 60’s songs played outside.  The acoustics and piano are incredibly fluid and never take too much focus from other elements like the vocals or overall rhythm.  The pace of songs like PPP and Beyond Love on this album represent just how slow Beach House can take their music, while songs like Blue Bird and Sparks show how they can drive more of a pulse based rhythm, all without raising the vocal range.

There is an appreciation for soft alternative like this that prove creativity can carry a song in unique ways.  Even if not every song on Depression Cherry leaves a permanent mark, there are several moments in this album that make you want to come back.  The good not only outweighs the bad, but also makes you appreciate what is so good about music like this.

Describing Beach House to someone who hasn’t heard it is a lot like describing what salt tastes like to someone who has never had salt.  Once you have experienced it, you remember it forever.  And while Depression Cherry does have songs that fall by the wayside, there are tracks here that you’ll keep with you as go to songs for quiet moments for the rest of your life.

Overall, Depression Cherry should satisfy the longtime fans of Baltimore’s darlings and should also satisfy new comers who are interested in what Legrand and Scally are capable of.  While it may not be their greatest accomplishment, the talent still shines through their work in this album.

Photos: FOO FIGHTERS

By
Luke Spencer
-

Photos of the Foo Fighters live on the Break A Leg tour!  All photos were taken by Luke Spencer at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in St. Louis, MO on 8-19-2015.

The curtain dropped and the Foo Fighters went straight into Everlong.  After the first song, Dave said they had a LOT of songs to play and they rocked for almost two hours.  Just about every favorite song from everyone in the massive crowd was covered.  There was no photo pit, but I still got to get some photos of King Dave on the throne.

My personal favorite moment was when Dave asked for the crowd to respond if they had seen the Foos live before.  After that, he asked if it was anyone’s first time.  After about 1/3 of the crowd responded to that, Grohl’s response was “…WTF guys?  We’ve been doing this for 20 years and you just get here now?!”

There isn’t much else I can say to do this show justice.  Do what it takes to see the Foo Fighters live.  Click on any pic below to view the gallery!

Interview: ROYAL BLOOD

By
Luke Spencer
-

Mike and Ben take some time during the Break A Leg tour with the Foo Fighters to talk about the writing process, sitting in parliament, and apology to all future fans!

https://vimeo.com/137107451

Photos: ROYAL BLOOD

By
Luke Spencer
-

My photos of Royal Blood in St. Louis, MO!  All photos were taken by me on 8-15-2015.

Royal Blood opened for the Foo Fighters on the Break-A-Leg tour (get it?).  The crowd was MASSIVE and people waited in the rain and sat in the mud while watching Royal Blood play at Hollywood Casino Amphitheater.  They won over many fans with their performance as most people were blown away at the seamless talent they showed while transitioning between songs and they even treated the crowd with a few new ones.

Click on any picture below to view the gallery!

Album Review: Disturbed – Immortalized

By
Luke Spencer
-

After almost five years Disturbed return with their new album they kept secret from everyone, including their families and diehard fanbase.

https://vimeo.com/136384907

 

Text Review:

It can be difficult to keep quiet about upcoming projects if you are in the music business, especially when you need to promote your upcoming work.  Word of mouth and advertising is what can make a huge difference in sales and in an age where free streaming music is at everyone’s finger tips, promoting your upcoming work can be the difference in a big payout and a seven cent royalty check.

Even bigger names in the industry are becoming victim to situations like this.  However that did not deter Disturbed when keeping quiet on their first album in over four years.  Immortalized was recorded and finished back in January but not a word was said until this summer.  Their first album in over four years had been kept a secret from even the most diehard Disturbed fans.

And What’s even more shocking is that Disturbed had started writing and working on Immortalized in January of 2014.  Not even friends and family were informed of the future release.  In a quote from Draiman on Loudwire, he stated that “We wanted to return when we collectively had that fire underneath us. We missed it so much that we could tap into this energy and deliver the right album. We did it on our own terms.”

So even in the midst of different ventures and side projects by Draiman and company, the actual announcement of new material and the release of the first single The Vengeful One caused a social media spike from every music outlet and from millions of Disturbed fans who have been waiting for the follow up to 2010’s Asylum.

With the promise of rejuvenation and a fire underneath them, The Vengeful One was the first look at Disturbed after their longest hiatus to date – and with it we got Disturbed in their full glory and unique style.

The Vengeful One in every way was the best choice of a song to give longtime Disturbed fans and introduce new listeners to their sound.  Draiman’s vocals are patterned and elevated with the perfect timing and delivery with the guitar riffs carrying the song from beginning to end, and some absolutely brutal – high-paced drum bashing from Mike Wengren.

The familiarity of Disturbed is something that rock fans have become accustomed with since the year 2000.There are some bands who you can describe as sounding like one another, but then there is Disturbed who are their own entity.  A song like the Vengeful One is proof of that with the build in intensity behind Draiman and the lyrics that make you feel like a Greek deity or supervillain when you sing them.

What may surprise people who are not Disturbed fans or may feel they only have one sound, Immortalized has a surprising range in style with upbeat tracks like The Light and the cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence.

Disturbed have been known to cover songs before like Shout and Land of Confusion, but with The Sound of Silence it truly feels like this was as personal of an experience for the band as it was for the original writers.  The solemn piano notes and the quite opening that leads to slowly added strings and acoustics all with a surprisingly calm and paced Draiman is something that is hard to do justice by just talking about it.

There are a few dips in the album that take you out of the experience, but Immortalized will prove something too many Disturbed naysayers who claim that EVERY song of theirs sounds the same.  While their style is unique and therefore their sound will feel very similar when comparing various songs, this album has proof that the band not only has the talent and ability to do whatever they want, but that they can do it any WAY they want.

In the eyes of their fans Disturbed can do no wrong, while in the eyes of their detractors every song will sound identical.  Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, Immortalized has proof that they are capable of varying their sound while still staying wholly faithful to the sound that made them famous.

Overall, Immortalized continues the tradition of Disturbed’s no non-sense intensity and creativity in providing music that will make mother’s cry when they find their children listening to it.  While not every song is perfect, this album is definitely worth listening to and finding the hidden gems that only a band like Disturbed is capable of.

Album Review: Bullet For My Valentine – Venom

By
Luke Spencer
-

Venom, the fifth full album from Bullet For My Valentine, is promised to be the best metal album of 2015. Does the music live up to that hype?

https://vimeo.com/136114958

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