By Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Metal
Favorite Tracks: ‘Falling Star,” “Shiver,” and “How Will You Remember Me”
Hard rock and metal are interesting genres in that the core musicians often end up in need of a distinct singer, who is both charismatic and dynamic, to help them stand out. Too often, this doesn’t work out, and what ends up set to record sounds like a sitcom’s idea of what rock bands sound like, a copy of a cliche of nothing special, but very loud. These are genres built on attitude, and the great bands—Deftones, Killswitch Engage during the Howard Jones years, the Foo Fighters exclusively as a touring band, or the one-of-a-kind style and grace of Paramore—know how to take a very limited playbook and make it their own. Hell, one could argue Avenged Sevenfold deserves another look for the sheer amount of sneering fun they bring to an update of ‘80s metal self-seriousness. Again and again, the great bands have a singer to act as a conduit for the ho-hum churning of bass and double kick-drums, the yawn-worthy fire set to a fret board as a solo is played. This front person helps the group find a new take on the style, and allows the band to build a sound still using genre hallmarks, but with dynamic, sometimes soulful elements that allow the listener to hear beyond the cheesy tones they know so well as fans. All of this is to say that Halestorm, their myth and legacy, is built on the ability of Lizzy Hale to find new dimensions to herself that invite her collaborators to find thoughtful, sturdy ways to help her best articulate these depths.
On EVEREST, the band’s sixth album, this is heard in the stronger use of smoother, extended melodic phrases in the guitars, and a real leaning on Lizzy Hale’s polished vocal delivery. To claw their way to the place they hold, Hale has often used her “rock” voice (take one part Dolly Parton, two parts Brody Dalle, two parts Axl Rose, and stir until it’s a ferocious, feminine throaty delivery), which can be shifted and smoothed out for arena rock (BACK FROM THE DEAD’s “Alien”), or even alternative pop (BACK FROM THE DEAD’s “Raise Your Horns’). On this record, there’s a sense of hesitancy to get too weird or mellow for their fans, who may want to “rawk” as much as they wish to merely rock. In this anxiety, which is less palpable as the record goes on, the band finds a great deal of life in playing it safe while trying to add new colors to their palette.
Immediately, the new approach can be heard in opener “Falling Star,” which is much more spacious than any typical rock sound, let alone any typical sound of Halestorm. The musical phrases are stately, making use of more elegant pinched harmonics than a listener might expect, inviting the dynamics to come to the forefront in a way that’s new for the band. For the first time, the band doesn’t just sound like they’re backing Hale, but rather, her vocal (complete with a fun echo effect) and the arrangement feel cohesive and collaborative, with each enhancing and highlighting the other, pointless guitar outro aside.
On “Shiver,” the second best song on the album, the band feels like it’s locking into what it wants to be, not just what fans want them to be. The song is smooth and not grating, but doesn’t lose any heaviness despite this wiser, more tasteful sound (in many ways, fans of Metallica’s BLACK ALBUM may recognize some of the playbook in this record). Hale’s voice is more Chris Cornell or Brandi Carlisle than Axl Rose, and the band absolutely shines with beautiful drum fills from Arejay Hale, clever bass lines courtesy of Josh Smith, and the best guitar playing on the record from Joe Hottinger and Leo Nessinger (more Khruangbin or King Crimson than Trapt or Lacuna Coil).
Elsewhere on the record, this BLACK ALBUM-esque, mid-career move to fight off any threat of a slump crops up in tracks like “Rain Your Blood On Me,” a refined and tasteful reinvention of that constantly embarrassing genre staple, the fist-pumping anthem. Famously, this has always been where Halestorm are at their absolute worst, with the band and Lizzy having to reduce anything interesting about their music to sound like an advert for a new Rock Band game. Here, they brilliantly avoid the stumble by relying on dynamics rather than wattage, challenging their fans to rock instead of “rawk” with their new, thoughtful tom-heavy track.
Over and over, the band surprises by avoiding their worst tendencies and pivoting to find new depths. Even tracks like “WATCH OUT’’ and “K-I-L-L-I-N-G,” which are designed to be typical headbangers, find new dimension with heaviness that drops into hardcore territory a la System Of A Down’s “Cigaro,” and a screaming vocal from Hale that is uniquely deep and balanced, not unlike the new depth of talent Chester Bennington finds on “Bleed it Out.” These new tools make the record shine, even as it relies on tedious intros and outros to remind you the band is still an arena act, or flirts with eeriness in a way it can never crack as a thread throughout the entire record.
By the time the record wraps with the best Lizzy Hale vocal, “How Will You Remember Me,” a one-of-one pop showstopper that makes a terribly great case for Hale to quit the band and pursue some alt-pop career, you’re sold. If the band can keep mutating and challenging itself and its fans to grow, the future will be bright. They have the best singer in the genre to lead them.
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