Album Rating: 3.4
Sure to be divisive, it takes a few listens to take in Halestorm's 3rd LP 'Into the Wild Life'. Hurt by a poor opener & the lack of a true hit, this live-sounding record was produced in Nashville by Jay Joyce. In a sense, it's contradictorily too ambitious & too safe, as well as too playful & too serious, since the quartet's disparate influences result in a lot of diversity, but no great cohesion. Meanwhile, Lzzy Hale's vocals continue to impress & Joe Hottinger has a hoot of a time flailing solos. Even if this isn't a total success in isolation, it's another important step in the band's evolution. Recommended Tracks: Ahem, Mayhem, Apocalyptic & What Sober Couldn't Say.
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Album Rating: 2.0
Interesting new direction here, but it's completely boring and dull in terms of execution and general all-round performance. Even Lzzy sounds bored most of the time, and the band play rhythm section in a very auto-pilot way, as if the 50 minute runtime here was rushed just to get the album out as quick as possible. There's a few decent tracks here ("I am the Fire", "Dear Daughter", "Mayhem") but not even they can lift the album out of sheer mediocrity. The previous two albums blow this out of the water if I'm honest.
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