Album Review

Hellyeah - Band of BrothersHellyeah – Band of Brothers

Here we go once again, another super group album release for 2012 but the difference is that with this one, there are preceding albums to go on; this will be Hellyeah’s 3rd full studio album in their 6 year career, the self titled Hellyeah being released in 2007, follow up Stampede released in 2010 and finally here we are with Band of Brothers in 2012. These guys are a combination of Pantera, Damageplan, Nothingface and Mudvayne all of which are considered respected legendary acts in the world of metal, their little “super” project already have some pretty impressive songs under their belt but as albums on the whole, they have only been alright with some cool songs on it.

Opener “War in Me” to me just seems to have too many similarities to and may as well be a Mudvayne track from how it sounds at the start, in fact no throughout the entire song it just seems like a slightly grittier version of a Mudvayne track, particularly “Not Falling” and “Internal Primates Forever”. With music sometimes you get the smooth feeling where every element gels together perfectly and you can actually feel it, but at the same time sometimes they just feel like everything is being forced together as it doesn’t really go together, that’s what the title track “Band of Brothers” feels like, mostly like they’ve forced those lyrics and vocals into the song. “Drink Drank Drunk” is more like what I wanted to hear, it flows through gritty and aggressive, just not as aggressive as material I was expecting but it’s a step in the right direction.

Song’s they do that are soft are always extremely light in comparison to the majority of their material, their southern style on heavy stuff is overwhelmed by the distortion that a song like “Between You and Nowhere” almost feels like a completely different band due to its subtle tones. Chad Gray from what I’ve seen live cannot bring it live but with Mudvayne he’s always been extremely impressive in my opinion, his work with Hellyeah isn’t quite as good but still decent work, lyrics may be a bit too cheesy and lower down the intellectual scale than his work with Mudvayne but that’s kind of the point. The heavier stuff is like Damageplan, Pantera and Mudvayne at war with each other trying to push themselves to the surface of the sound, the resultant end product has changed over the years and evidentially with this release Mudvayne has definitely made a break for the surface.

Overall though I can say that I’ve enjoyed it as I have every other album; some truly amazing songs I’ve enjoyed listening to, and others that I wouldn’t think to listen to off the top of my head as they’ve not really made a lasting impression up in here. I’d say this is great for a few listens more for the nostalgia of the greats that are now defunct or past their best days but after that I wouldn’t say it’ll be your favourite album of the year.

3/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Vinnie Paul
Chad Gray
Greg Tribbett
Tom Maxwell
Bob Zilla
 Track Listing
1. War In Me
2. Band of Brothers
3. Rage – Burn
4. Drink Drank Drunk
5. Bigger God
6. Between You and Nowhere
7. Call It Like I See It
8. Why Does It Always
9. WM Free
10. Dig Myself a Hole
11. What It Takes to be Me
 Band Related Links
Hellyeah Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?