  
American musical hero Corey Taylor is back once
again but this time it’s with his hard rock
band Stone Sour as they release their 4th album
House of Gold and Bones, Part 1 on the back of
Slipknot’s All Hope Is Gone and the band’s
previous album Audio Secrecy. Criticism Slipknot
have been recently receiving is that they’ve
begun to sound more and more like Stone Sour,
but with Audio Secrecy I personally fell in love
with Stone Sour all over again; the range in style
was off the charts, the melody within each track
was something new and impressive the band had
never reached before and pulling themselves far
away from the Slipknot association. Taylor himself
promised that this latest release would be some
of the darkest material that the band has ever
put together; I can tell you now he wasn’t
lying.
I was not ready for this at all, not even slightly.
I knew I was up against some of the darkest Stone
Sour songs ever recorded but I did not expect
anything quite this epic! “Gone Sovereign”
starts with this single guitar and vocal overlay
which sets a threatening tone to start us off
before a brief slow down drawing you in for the
chaos to erupt in classic fashion moments later;
“Absolute Zero” takes the cake though
for being dark both lyrically and with musical
tone, the chorus as well really gives Taylor his
chance to shine and show off his impeccable vocal
range, still arguably the greatest vocalist in
both metal and rock alike. “Tired”
I feel a strong connection to due to its nature,
it’s a hard rock song but it’s soft
and I know those are contradictory statements
but it’s got the gritty guitar’s but
Taylor’s softer approach and the gentle
parts make it softer than the others.
How they keep finding ways for each album to push
its boundaries in their own way will always astound
me, this one in particular is the most drastic
I will say as that darker themed approach is something
I didn’t think this particular band would
touch on, they made it work for them though! “Ru
486” is addictive as hell, those riffs and
sequences are floating around in my head now and
I find myself humming along with it, the group
vocals on the chorus give it that raw live feel
too, it’s got the bounce you can bounce
along to much like “Last of the Real”
which has got that party vibe. Extreme range here,
it drops from heavy to gentle, gets bouncy and
upbeat, drops it gentle again then finishes dark
and heavy with a party twist, the variety gives
it that edge on the other albums I mean in all
honesty I can’t compare it with the other
albums as they’ve all got their own thing
going on but this, I love this.
4.5/5
Review by James Webb
|
