Review Summary: "The Truth Is..." throws away any potential Theory of a Deadman possesses in favour of a catchy chorus and their best attempts to become another big, bombastic "cock-rock" band, but to no avail.
Theory of a Deadman first came to my attention when I saw the music video for “I Hate My Life” while flicking through the plentiful music channels available these days. And I’m not ashamed to admit I like the song-be it original or not, “I Hate My Life” was and still is the ultimate working man’s anthem, and with lyrics as blunt and relatable as “I hate my job/My boss is a dick/I don’t get paid nearly enough/To put up with all of his sh*t” it seemed to tick all the boxes in terms of creating an enjoyable radio-rock track that would grab plenty of attention and rake in a few new fans. Intrigued by my new discovery-if a little put off by the lead singer’s attempts to mirror Chad Krueger’s horrific vocal style, I went to do some research on the band via the Internet. To be quite frank, I wasn’t impressed. There was nothing of interest to be found-they just sounded like every other below-average mainstream rock band out there. And that’s all I really thought of Theory of a Deadman-and all most people seem to think of them-until I decided to give them a second chance and downloaded their latest release
The Truth Is… for a listen.
Kicking off the album is lead single “Lowlife”-which surprised me with its very apparent popish tendencies. On first listen, nothing much stands out about this song-the instrumentation is nothing special and, although the lyrics are interesting enough in a humorous sort of way, the drab songwriting and the lead vocalist’s horribly forced Chad Krueger impression hinder the song from ever becoming anything remotely impressive-and upon the third or fourth listen it just becomes downright annoying. It’s a shaky start for an album that, unfortunately, never really finds its feet.
The biggest issue surrounding this album and, for that matter, Theory of a Deadman in general is their refusal to do anything other than try and imitate Nickelback. Not only does it severely prevent any potential the band may possess from blooming into something more, but it also gives the impression that the band care a little too much about the money they make. After all, what serious musician would want to copy the music of one of the most hated bands of all time? The worst offender on the album is second track “Bitch Came Back”-which is also the most horrific song available here and one of the most annoying pieces of mainstream trash I’ve heard in some time. The chorus is barely listenable-ridiculously simple and just plain annoying in every sense of the word.
Thankfully, the album manages to pull itself up from the fall that is “Bitch Came Back” and continue its unstable run with “Hurricane”-which is actually a refreshingly good track. Despite being a typical ballad that’s just waiting to pounce on the charts and bound effortlessly to the number one spot, it’s still one of the better of the batch with some decent lyrics and a good melody to match. It still doesn’t make up, however, for how disappointingly mediocre the rest of the album is. The rockers always end up being frustratingly annoying, like a fly buzzing around your ear that just won’t leave no matter how many times you swat it, and “Gentleman” is a perfect example of this. Obnoxious, irritating and painfully stupid, the coupling of below-average musicianship and terrible lyrics is a match made in Hell. The ballads prove nowhere near as annoying, but they all live in the shadow of “Hurricane”-none is anything more than mediocre and not really worth the three or four minutes of your life they will take up. “We Were Men” is an exception however-with surprisingly tasteful guitar work and a pretty powerful chorus, it does a good job of ending the album on a high note.
The lasting affect
The Truth Is… gives is a simple one-of a band throwing away their talent trying to become the next big radio sensation. No matter how much they try, no matter how much they strain, the unnecessary swearing and arrogant, “cock-rock” lyrics of Nickelback just don’t suit them, and never will. The only thing setting them apart from other Nickelback-alikes such as Hinder at this point in time is the glimmer of potential desperately trying to pull through the ugly black coating of cock-rock they slop so carelessly over their work. If they were to only realize that Nickelback is to music what Transformers is to the movie industry (stupid, horrendously bad and something better left forgotten), Theory of a Deadman may actually be able to put together a pretty good album. But for now, this is an album best left untouched-because it has its fair share of ups and downs but for the most part it is extremely mediocre and nothing more than an average band copying below-average music.
