 
Having been branded as “Nickelback’s
baby brothers” due to having a borderline
identical sound, the band has received a substantial
amount of abuse in the press with low scoring
reviews and generally negative content. I think
that this album will slay such slanderous phrases
and Theory of a Deadman will finally get the credit
they truly deserve for the talent they posses.
The band have come into their own at last with
“The Truth Is...”; I have myself been
a huge fan since “Scars & Souvenirs”
hit the stores back in 2008 and I feel that this
new record is easily their best effort to date.
The bands first 2 records didn’t excite
me or grab at my attention in the slightest, so
when “Scars & Souvenirs” was filled
with catchy lyrics and a great mix of different
types of song with amazing production I took a
keen interested. So to see they’ve followed
up my favourite album with a new release that
really pushes the boundaries of their sound is
a true blessing.
The first single “Lowlife” was made
available back in May; this song was a lot bassier
than I was expecting and has an almost theatrical
feel with the way the music tries to portray the
vibe that the lyrics give off which match exceptionally
well. The theatrical vibe is a huge thing throughout
the album; there are songs that have lots orchestral
work such as “Hurricane” in particular,
the brass section in “Gentleman” and
small trombone sections during “Bitch Came
Back”. Adding this must have taken a lot
of careful consideration and tremendous amounts
of work to put together, it just shows how serious
the bands are about creating the ultimate album
to shake off the bad press and reach stardom.
“Out of my Head” has since became
my favourite Theory of a Deadman song, simply
due to it being some of the best vocal work Tyler
Connolly has ever done; the beautiful lyrics,
sheer range in his voice and the execution is
just astonishing. For the first time ever I can
actually say I can’t hear any Nickelback
influence in the material, I’m glad because
now they may actually get some recognition as
a band with their now distinctive style. Nickelback
write songs the same kind of way which is where
the comparison originates, the difference being
that Nickelback try with their heavier tracks
to be quite riffy heavy rock where as Theory of
a Deadman go for the energetic bouncy approach.
The majority of the album favours the lighter
side of their sound with 4 upbeat energetic tracks;
“Lowlife”, “The Truth is...
(I Lied About Everything)”, “Drag
me to Hell” and “Gentleman”,
these particular tracks I like to brand the “party
anthems” that will be slotted into live
shows amongst the softer tracks to get some energy
flowing. The track “We were men” closes
the standard edition of the album and on an extremely
high note with the really touching lyrics and
exquisite vocal work; this is possible the album
that will define Theory of a Deadman’s career.
All future releases will be compared to this one
as this is their own style, breaking away from
all the comparisons and bad criticism for the
first time leaving them open to a breakthrough.
Before I finish this review I think I’d
like to take a moment to mention the special edition
with 4 additional tracks (“Careless”,
“Does it Really Matter”, “Villain”
and “Better or Worse”) as well as
acoustic versions of “Out of my Head”
and “Easy to Love You”. All 4 bonus
tracks are just to the same standard to that of
the songs included in the standard version of
the album and are equally great songs; I would
definitely recommend this version just for those
6 additional songs.
5/5
Review by James Webb
|
