Vol. 137
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Full Pelt Magazine
Tag: Album Review
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Shinedown
‘EI8HT’
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SHINEDOWN – Ei8ht – album review
“…A lot can happen in a year…”, Brent Smith sings on ‘Three Six Five’ – the fourth track of a whopping eighteen on new Shinedown album, ‘EI8HT’.
Indeed, it can! The build-up towards what is, yes, their eighth album has been elongated with the pre-release singles stretching back to January last year. In that time the band the have played a huge set at Download here in the UK and well, not played a certain festival in the US which has led to a fair amount of criticism from all sides.
Whilst the lead-up to the album hasn’t been traditional, the band aren’t exactly traditional and have always done things their own way even where that courts elements of controversy. On record though it’s hard to argue with the quality of their work.
They’ve been on a musical evolution throughout their career, and each album or period of releases has had distinct identities. This new album however feels a little different.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘Searchlight’
Across the hour and four minutes of music, you get glimpses of everything that has gone into the band over the past two decades, but you also get a band seemingly desperate to not just repeat what they’ve done before.
This does make the album difficult to pigeonhole but that’s not always a bad thing. Over the course of such a long collection however this does mean it can feel more of just that – a collection of songs rather than a fully cohesive album.
There are plenty of good songs on here, so fans of the band won’t be short of highlights, but undoubtedly the album would’ve benefitted by losing twenty minutes or so.
Still, fans of this modern Shinedown are going to get their fill with this album. A steady stream of radio rock friendly songs will have them eating for the next year or two until album number nine arrives.
The band may be marmite and will always have people talking about them. You just sense that they don’t care and will continue to do whatever they want. ‘EI8HT’ is the album of a band comfortable in their skin but happy to cover it with fresh ink!
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Saint Agnes
‘Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin’
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Saint agnes – Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin – album review
Saint Agnes have already built themselves a solid (and growing) following in the aftermath of their first two commanding albums. Now they are back to triple-down on their signature mix of chaos and power to add an exclamation mark to their potential.
‘Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin’ kicks off with recent standout singles, ‘Good Boy’, ‘The Ghost’ and ‘The Father, The Son and The Holy Beast’ and never really lets up from there.
This album represents an enormous step up in heaviness and atmospheric style for the band. Sounding like a crossover between modern Poppy, full throttle Nine Inch Nails and hard-hitting Pendulum, these are songs designed for the dancefloor whilst oozing rock energy.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘The Ghost’
Lyrically the album doesn’t seek to pull any punches, instead covering personal and wider topics with frank and direct vigour.
Whilst the majority of the songs feature that industrial intensity, the likes of album closer ‘Where Do I Begin’, do superbly showcase a more melodic, tender side which adds the depth needed to bring this record to life.
Following on from its vampire themed predecessor, ‘Your God Fearing Days Are About To Begin’, sounds like an underground club just waiting for Blade to arrive and unleash hell!
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Vol. 136
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A
‘PRANG’
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A – prang – album review
The band with the worst name to search for on the internet are back!
For fans of British rockers A, a time when the band were all over radio and music tv and playing shows with the biggest bands around will be a fond memory. One that the brain knows was a long time ago (considering internet algorithms weren’t a concern), but the heart thinks was just yesterday.
Well, as a stark reminder of how old we are all getting – their last album was released twenty-one years ago!! It’s fair to say that even the most ardent fan had probably assumed that another album was a pipe dream and that sporadic shows celebrating the glory days were as good as it would ever get.
That was until the band announced that they will be releasing, ‘PRANG’. I mean, the phrase long-awaited is probably overused but this certainly feels like an acceptable circumstance to break it out!
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘WALKOVER‘
Four pre-release singles, ‘Hello Sunshine’, ‘Walkover’, ‘Bring On The Likes’ and ‘Shit Summer’, have given fans an indication of what to expect and those tracks make up the first four on the record, giving fans an easy introduction.
The album as a whole does continue with the same charm however that fans would expect. With their famously catchy choruses, witty lyrics, and signature sound all intact this is exactly what old-school fans will want to hear from a new A album.
Of course, the fact that the world has changed and we’ve all got older is explored across the songs along with some personal themes. Produced by frontman Jason Perry, who is now a Grammy winning producer after all, the album maintains the DIY feel and has that loveable A personality at its core.
This is A in 2026 and its just a fun as it was in 2005!
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Marmozets
‘CO.WAR.DICE.’
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MARMOZETS – CO.War.dice. – Album review
The return of Marmozets has been greatly received by those that had them pegged for big things around their two albums in the mid-2010’s.
A band who have had to overcome plenty of obstacles in their career, the wait for album number three has been an arduous journey, but also one with that has seen them able to grow their family. Eight years though is a long time between releases, so how does ‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ stack up to their early work?
Many after all clammer for the weird and wonderful chaos of their debut album compared to the more straightforward sound of their sophomore record. Well, the deeper this new collection progresses the more you sense that album number three is a genuine mix of the two – a controlled chaos.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘A KISS FROM A MOTHER’
Frontloaded with pre-release singles ‘A Kiss From A Mother’, ‘New York’, ‘Cut Back’ and ‘Running With The Sun In Your Eyes’, the first half of the album gives a warming familiarity. The band then begin to stretch their legs again with the second half of the album becoming much more eclectic.
The likes of ‘Dandy’ and ‘Flowerz’ show the more tender side of the band, whilst ‘Mes Désirs’ shows they can still write big arena rock songs just fine.
The album reaches its finale with the seven or so minute epic, ‘Keep Going Darling’, which simply encapsulates the album itself so well.
‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ delivers in all the ways that it needs to. To go with a title that feels rather What3Words like, we’d call it, Eclectic.Frenetic.Ambitious.
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Vol. 135
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The All-American Rejects
‘Sandbox’
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THE All-american rejects – sandbox – album review
If we flashback to 2008, The All-American Rejects were one of the hottest bands in rock music with a string of big hits making them mainstays of radio and music TV. The band seemed to have the world at their feet.
Whilst 2012’s ‘Kids in the Street’ didn’t set the world alight; it also wasn’t a terrible album by any stretch of the imagination. Nobody would’ve predicted back then that it would take fourteen long years for the band to release their next record!
That is the case however with the band having been in and out of hibernation over the intervening years with a splattering of singles and some occasional touring. Album number five is finally here however in the shape of ‘Sandbox’.
A stream of singles has built to the release in recent months, so fans already have a very good idea of what to expect, but it’s nice to have the album in our hands at last.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘King Kong’
With themes of aging and understanding adulthood, it seems too obvious to point out that this is a mature album. Sonically as well as lyrically the band have grown and that means that some of that old playful appeal is gone. But that doesn’t mean that their overall charm has faltered with these songs still more than capable of stimulating a range of emotions.
The charismatic allure of frontman Tyson Ritter remains untamed but with their fanbase now older as well, these songs are all too relatable. Getting older is scary and navigating what the world has become is terrifying. Music however has the power to centre the psyche and ground our emotions.
Having The All-American Rejects back in our lives and providing that essential escape is therefore a wonderful thing, and with ‘Sandbox’ delivering so well; let’s hope that album number six isn’t another fourteen years away!
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Vol. 134
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Black Veil Brides
‘VINDICATE’
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BLACK VEIL BRIDES – VINDICATE – ALBUM REVIEW
Black Veil Brides return with their seventh studio album, ‘VINDICATE’!
That’s a headline that many critics and tormentors wouldn’t have predicated and for many bitter trolls one that they undoubtedly wish that they hadn’t just read.
Seeing their burgeoning career greeted by a barrage of abuse as rock music gatekeepers used the band for target practice, singer Andy Biersack has come accustomed to defending the band against the naysayers.
As if their continued growth into an arena act didn’t vindicate their career enough, on this new album the band again have the bit between their teeth, and they write about what Biersack admits could be considered an unhealthy fixation with vengeance.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘CUT’
This album explores the intense duality of a desire for revenge with the positive drive and negative stalling of the emotive subject in scope across the intense collection of classic sounding Black Veil Brides songs.
The pre-release singles gave good indicators that this would be a band on top form and with an album clearly crafted by passion and a real fire, fans will find it easy to find their own purpose from these tracks.
On ‘Alive’ you hear Biersack rage “…I’m alive and free of misery, you try to destroy me, but you know you’re not holy…”. This defiance etches itself into the album and is emblematic of how the band has naturally had to grow hardened shells.
The album has been a long time coming. ‘Bleeders’ was first released two years ago! But fans can now pick up this latest effort confident that the band firmly retain their rebelliousness and that as they continue their assent they will forever be vindicated.
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