CD Odyssey Disc 1808: Halestorm

I got out for a few runs this week and as a result this next album got a lot of consecutive listens (‘running’ is a variation of ‘walking around’ so counts for listening purposes under Rule #5).

Disc 1808 is…Into the Wild Life

Artist: Halestorm

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover? The band hanging out with their equipment. Lzzy Hale looks a bit guilty here, like maybe this is the opening band’s equipment, and she’s putting gum on one of the trunk handles or something.

The rest of the band is looking away which means they either don’t know what’s going on or they are totally in on the prank and playing lookout.

How I Came To Know It: I don’t recall, but it was recent – some time last year. I then did a bit of a deep dive, put a bunch of records on my “to find” list and then encountered pretty much all of them in a record store…in the mall. Anyone who says mall life is dead is wrong. It is only mostly dead.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Halestorm albums. I had reserved a higher spot for this record, but it ended up displacing “Back from the Dead” for last place so…5^th.

Ratings: 3 stars

For Halestorm, it is all about that voice. Lzzy Hale is one of the great rock voices in the history of the genre. Multi-octave range, plenty of growl and power to blow the doors off an armoured car. But even when it is all about the voice, a record needs more than that. “Into the Wild Life” is polished to perfection, but like a sphere that perfection makes it hard to get a grip on. It is too much in the lane and needs a little bit more pothole and gravel to be a truly great rock record.

There are plenty of reasons to like this record, which is a baker’s dozen rock bangers great for driving, head bobbing and all manner of fist pumping action. These songs are easy to enjoy. They are a collection of anthems that you would sing along to but – alas – keeping up with Lzzy Hale’s vocals is not a thing that will happen. Better to just lip synch and feel like you can make those sounds (you cannot – they are reserved for rock goddesses and Valkyries).

The biggest anthem of them all is “Amen” which takes us all to the church of rock with a bunch of easy-to-remember rhymes and a hard hitting, in-the-pocket delivery that lends itself to guilt-free moshing. If listening to this song doesn’t make you want to pray at Halestorm’s altar, then something is wrong with your earholes.

It is followed by the record’s signature ballad (and single) “Dear Daughter”. No screeching guitar riffs here, just some echoing piano chords and that goddamn perfect voice again. “Dear Daughter” is a song of intergenerational female empowerment. Lyrics like:

“Dear daughter
Don't worry about those stupid girls
If they try to bring you down
It's ‘cause they're scared and insecure
Dear daughter
Don't change for any man
Even if he promises the stars
And takes you by the hand”

Are pretty standard and obvious, frankly, but Hale follows them up with an affirming:

“These are words that every girl should have a chance to hear.”

Hardly Shakespeare but a Goddamn lovely sentiment. Moreover, when Hale sings this stuff, you will feel the feels. This is not an option. There may be a small part of your English Literature-trained brain that wants something more innovative, but you will feel this stuff. Also, it feels good.

Hale sings plenty of “bad girl” anthems on this record as well (with much more electric guitar, of course) and those are fun as well, but there’s an inner balance of character that makes for an uplifting listen. “Bad Girl’s World” is about excelling in the face of jealousy and ignorance. When sex is mentioned on some tracks (and it most certainly is), she’s sex positive. When things aren’t positive (“The Reckoning”, “What Sober Couldn’t Say”) they come from a place of telling some jackass off in exactly the way jackasses need to be told off.

The musicianship on “Into the Wild Life” is strong, and the band is tight and precise. Frankly, I could’ve used a little hint of sloppy here and there. Hale would’ve soared over it just fine, and the perfection of the playing makes songs that don’t have the strongest lyrics sound a bit too sanitized.

The production has that turn of the oughts “loud” quality as well. Crisp and clean but again, maybe a bit too on the mark. Rock and roll needs a thin coating of grime over the all that excellence. The record is squarely in the hard rock style, my inner metal head wanted more crunch and grind.

The melodies on “Into the Wild Life” will not win awards for innovation, and the lyrics are often predictable but Halestorm delivers it well, and even when you know it isn’t anything music hasn’t seen before you’ll still have a good time. And if nothing else lands, there’s that voice, worth the price of admission and then some.

Best tracks: Amen, Dear Daughter

CD Odyssey Disc 1766: Halestorm

The weekend has arrived, and I am ready for a good one filled with good times, good friends and lots and lots of music.

Disc 1766 is…Vicious

Artist: Halestorm

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover? This cover takes a real “hands on” approach. Some of these hands seem interested in Lzzy Hale’s necklace, others her jacket. Whatever the case…rude.

Also of note, according to that watch in the upper right it is 5:20, in the time zone west of wherever this hand attack is taking place, it is 4:20. I like to think it is Mountain Time, making it a mountain high.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed “Back from the Dead” at Disc 1747, I found the whole Halestorm collection in a store at…the mall. Weird, but fortuitous.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Halestorm albums. “Vicious” falls in the middle of the collection, third best.

Ratings: 4 stars

Visceral power. That is what you can expect on any Halestorm record, and while “Vicious” may have some disgruntled metal heads say it isn’t “metal enough,” it makes up for that with some solid songwriting and, of course, the ever-present revelation of Lzzy Hale’s vocals.

More on that later, but let’s start with the musicianship this record delivers. Halestorm plays a kind of music that can sound very by-the-numbers done wrong in one direction, and very muddy done wrong in the other. To play this tightly timed anthemic style of hard rock you need to be very precise, but you also have to sound emotionally engaged. The guitars have to snarl. The drums have to snap. Because of the overshadowing effect of Lzzy Hale’s vocal talents, the band doesn’t get enough credit for holding up the back end.

The crunch on the record is there, but it comes and goes. It is a deliberate effect of the arrangement to lay off a bit, letting Hale belt it out, and then coming back in hard for the chorus. It is a very old trick of arrangement and production that is found most commonly in pop music. It lends itself to repeat listens, because the more you anticipate the cues of where the song will jump in or out of the full crunch, the better your air-guitar and perfectly timed horn throwing becomes. In short, you feel clever, knowing what’s going to happen.

That production strays close to a Nu Metal “over loud” sound in places, but just enough to make me notice the similarities, not enough to ruin it. If you ever wonder what a loudly produced record would sound like when done well, then this is it.

Thematically, these songs are straight ahead, no chaser. Lzzy Hale likes to rock out, she likes to rebel, and she likes to get a little nasty. She is not embarrassed to sing about any of this. The result is a mix of anthems, calls to action, and booty calls. Expect lots of songs encouraging the listener to feel their own power, and not let the world bow you down, never not ever. It feels pretty good, and on every listen I found myself filled with energy and determination to soldier on.

The sexy songs are quite sexy, notably “Do Not Disturb” and “Conflicted”. “Do Not Disturb” is a late-night booty call in a hotel before our narrator jets off to a new city. The lyrics are not for misinterpretation:

“I'm on the very top floor room 1334
There's a king size bed but we can do it on the floor
Turn your cellphone off, leave a sign on the door
That says "Do not disturb"

Ever walk past a hotel door and hear something sexy happening on the other side? Don’t lie, we’ve all experienced this (n.b. when this happens don’t be creepy – keep walking). Well, “Do Not Disturb” is here to confirm that whatever the best thing you can imagine is going on in there, is going on in there. “Do Not Disturb” has a great song structure as well, filled with a churning energy and an invitation to sing along. Which is fitting, given the invitational nature of the lyrics (other great line “bring your girlfriend too/Two is better than one, three is better than two”).

If “Do Not Disturb” is about a woman making her desires plain, then its flip side is “Conflicted,” where she is calling on her paramour to take the initiative. She’s conflicted, but not really, and the song is saying “come on over and stop waiting for an invitation.”

Feeling uncomfortable with all this unabashed sexuality? Well, on “Uncomfortable” Hale lets you know that’s her intent. Don’t worry, though. Uncomfortable is a good place to be when experiencing art.

I mentioned at the top that the star of Halestorm is Lzzy Hale’s vocal prowess. Every song discussed above is elevated several steps because of her power. Never is it more true than on the record’s last song, “The Silence”.

“The Silence” is a song about enduring love, a commitment to your partner through thick and thin, frost and fire. The arrangement is just Hale and an acoustic guitar but it fills the room more completely than any of the more rock-arranged songs prior. When she hits full throat on this song you will stop what you are doing. You will shut up, you will lay back and you will suffer that voice to fill every corner of your soul. You won’t have a choice in this matter but don’t worry - it will feel fucking great.

Best tracks:  Black Vultures, Do Not Disturb, Conflicted, White Dress, The Silence

CD Odyssey Disc 1747: Halestorm

It has been a busy week and while I meant to review this record yesterday, fate conspired to prevent that from happening. I got an extra listen in the meantime, which was just fine with me.

Disc 1747 is…Back from the Dead

Artist: Halestorm

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  Giant Head Cover alert! Here we have lead singer and band leader Lzzy Hale’s Giant Head looking fiercely serious.

This is the deluxe edition of the album. The original version has Hale engaged in a scream and a red filter rather than this silvery gray treatment. The red version looks way cooler, but has less songs so…there’s that. Make your own choice.

How I Came To Know It: I recently got into Halestorm and was on the lookout for four of their albums (basically everything except 2012’s “The Strange Case Of…”, which I already had.

I was all prepared to patiently wait for them to show up when three weeks ago I went to the mall. Yes, dear reader, the mall. While there I went into a uninspiring mall record store where, against all logic, I found the entire Halestorm discography sitting there waiting for me.

I promptly bought everything they had with the exception of “The Strange Case Of…” (see above). And here we are.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Halestorm albums, which is all of them. I like them all, but the truth is I bought four of them just three weeks ago, and I’m not yet sure how they are going to stack up. I’ll start with this record in…fourth. I may be wrong, but for now I’ll assume it is good enough to beat out one “album to be named later” and all the others are even better, giving me something to look forward to!

Rating: 3 stars

Is “Back From the Dead” a true metal album, or is it just a rock record dressed up with a bit of extra oomph in the arrangement and production? I thought this often while I got to know it better, and while I landed on “classic metal” in the end, that wasn’t terribly important. I had a good time, and that’s what matters.

There are many kinds of metal. There’s the kind that pounds relentlessly on you as you sway in the mosh pit. There’s the kind that makes dread vibrate through your bones. These other forms are lots of fun, but in the case of “Back From the Dead” you get anthemic metal. This is the kind of metal that is for singing along to, for throwing your horns in the air knowing that everyone else in the crowd is going to do exactly the same thing, at exactly the same time. It is anticipatory participatory metal – the kind of community we metal heads love the most; the community of free thinking iconoclasts.

One thing you should know right up front though. You can sing along with Lzzy Hale, but you will never sing as good as Lzzy Hale. She is one of metal’s greatest voices. Instantly recognizable, bigger and bolder than life, and yet tender and emotionally evocative even when she’s in full throat. So sing along, just realize you are the backup here. It’s Lzzy’s world and until the last note dies, your job is to celebrate living in it.

Sometimes it is just raw crunch accompanying Hale, and she rises to the occasion. The title track and “Brightside” are great examples where the band digs in deep and heavy and Hale somehow manages to add to the crunch and also soar above.

There are plenty of “stand with me” kind of anthems. “The Steeple” is a fine example, one of many songs from Halestorm over the years the celebrates the band’s community of fans. It reminded me favourably of Judas Priest songs like “Take On the World” and “United.”

Other songs are sparser in the production, and Hale does not disappoint. “Terrible Things” and “Raise Your Horns” are somber and affecting experiences. Many of the songs are written during COVID lockdown, and while “Terrible Things” could refer to COVID, it is more powerful for me as a song about the horrors of drug addiction.

As for “Raise Your Horns” this song gets me every time I hear it. It is an anthem for being different, a reassuring call to keep going even in dark times, and a shared moment of personal rebellion for anyone finding themselves in a black moment:

“Burn every fear, every doubt like a funeral fire
Scream every anthem and follow your reckless desires
Take back the crown that hangs at the gate
Ready your march, steady your aim
For the heart is a soldier that never loses its way

“So raise your horns - Raise 'em high
Let 'em soar - Let 'em fly
Up through the heavens - Forevermore
Let 'em reign down - Raise your horns”

Whew. The heart is a soldier that never loses its way. Indeed. This is one of Hale’s finest vocal performances on any Halestorm record, which is saying a lot. Also, the way she sings the line “up through the heavens” had me fondly remembering Chris Cornell singing “say hello 2 heaven” in Temple of the Dog. Gave me an extra bit of the feels. (Rare biographical note – Hale started a #raiseyourhorns movement in support of mental health after the suicide of fellow singer Jill Janus of Huntress fame).

So, with all these good things, why only three stars?

First of all, this is the special edition record, lifting the album from a respectable 11 songs to a bloated 18. Of the extra seven tracks only one – “Heavy Mental (Fuck Yeah)” is worth the effort. Worst of all, it moves the perfection of “Raise Your Horns” from the triumphant conclusion of the record and moves it to the mushy middle.

Finally, the songs are a bit emotionally manipulative, but that’s OK – the line between evocative and manipulative in art is a fuzzy one. Most of the time, even when it felt overly obvious, Hale’s honest delivery lands things on the right side of that line.

Best tracks: Back From the Dead, Brightside, The Steeple, Terrible Things, Bombshell, Raise Your Horns, Heavy Mental (Fuck Yeah)