The self styled rock n roll Han Solo is back
Consider this for just a minute.
You’re Corey Taylor and you are frontman in one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. You could argue that Slipknot more than any other outfit in the late 90s brought extreme metal into the mainstream.
Then at the turn of the millennium you put the old boys back together, take the masks off, make a record that is still heavy as all hell when it wants to be, then that band becomes arena botherers in their own right.
Just greedy, really, isn’t it?
And yet Stone Sour deserve to be huge, because their five albums so far have been quite brilliant. Massive hooks, bigger choruses and, well, Taylor as a frontman adds up to a heady mix.
Their last couple, the “House Of Gold And Bones” pair were arguably their most ambitious statement, but much has changed in the four years since – Jim Root not being invited back after going on hiatus for, example. One thing hasn’t altered, though, “Hydrograd” is absolutely superb.
After an intro, things really get going with the stone cold highlight. “Taipei Person – Allah Tea”, this record’s “Absolute Zero” if you will, if you can resist its chorus then there’s no hope.
“Knievel Has Landed” broods with a malevolence that is classic Taylor – lets face it, he could read the phonebook and sound threatening – but in the way the best Stone Sour songs always do, it adds a “whoa, whoa” bit in the middle as if it doesn’t have a care in the world.
The title track has an epic feel, with new guitarist Christian Martucci given his head and when Taylor spits “I am not better than you, I am just better” you’d be best to agree, but its work like “Fabuless” that really convinces that this is a special album from a special band.
Sounding a little like latter day Slipknot (it might be that they sound like Stone Sour these days, though?) it twists, turns, merrily borrows from the Stones and Led Zep and manages to condemn celebrity culture along the way: “you spread your legs for TV time,” he sneers. “Baby, who fucks you best….?” It’s fair to say that no one here is watching Love Island any time soon.
A lengthy collection at 15 songs, it rather flies in the face of conventional wisdom that says the album is dead. On one or two occasions there is something that might be filler, but Stone Sour’s filler is better than most bands lead single, face facts.
And when it’s good, it’s unstoppable. “Thank God It’s Over” and “Witness Trees” would in other eras have been AOR song of the year, and if you thought Corey Taylor would sound shit if he attempted to sound like The Stones on “Sticky Fingers” then listen to the country ballad – yes, really – “St Marie” and think again.
It also manages to maintain its energy throughout. “Friday Knights” has a bit that is made for the moshpit, and “Somebody Stole My Eyes” is a genuine thrash song – its brilliantly foul mouthed too – and the lines “I am the rock n roll Han Solo the only one around” and “the devil made me do it, but God could have stopped me” should adorn t-shirts (and most probably will).
As is often the case on a Stone Sour album, the last one finds the band in reflective mood, and there is a slightly unsettling air to “When The Fever Broke” that is in keeping with a collection that does exactly what it wants and doesn’t care less about any one’s opinion except their own.
One of the best, most ambitious– and most unashamed – arena rock records of 2017 is right here.
Rating 9/10
