Review Summary: "Fury" should be a satisfying album for most people who have enjoyed Sick Puppies' previous work.
In late 2014 Sick Puppies was shaken up by the departure of their lead vocalist Shimon Moore. Shimon started a new project called Screaming at Demons, who quickly released a song called "Rockstar" followed by announcing the release of "Our Time" which features Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a guest drummer. Quickly after Shimon left to do his own thing, Sick Puppies wasted no time in announcing that they would be releasing a new album very soon. They recruited Bryan Scott as the new lead vocalist, put out a few singles, and “Fury” was released. Unlike their last album "Connect" this album is pretty heavy, as the album’s title might suggest. Bryan Scott is a good fit for Sick puppies and sounds very similar to Moore, which should relieve most fans who were worried about the change in vocalists.
The lyrical themes in the album tend to revolve around themes like betrayal, hurt, loss, finding yourself, and trying to stay positive in the midst of it. "Black and Blue" for example is a very heavy and fast paced song about being hurt by someone and being committed to bouncing back from it. "Let Me Live” covers familiar territory for Sick Puppies in telling a bully type figure to back off and "let me live." "Earth to You" tells someone who's stuck in place to get back on their feet and wake up. The lyrics in the album are pretty consistently good, and none of them seem cringe worthy to me.
Musically, the album is well executed, although some fans might notice that there are not as many distinct bass and guitar melodies as Sick Puppies usually have in their songs. Generally, the guitar/bass melodies in "Fury" are more subtle. “Beautiful Chaos” has a cool bass melody and “Earth to You” has a pretty distinctive one too. However, nothing in "Fury" is quite comparable to guitar/bass melodies like the ones in songs like "Howards Tale", "White Balloons", "Odd One", "Connect", "Master of the Universe", and other songs from previous albums. But besides having a lower amount of distinct instrumental melodies, the songs are all pretty musically excellent. Nice heavy guitar and bass work throughout, great drumming, and every song in the album is catchy enough that someone could easily find themselves humming them throughout the day. There's not a single throwaway song on the album, which is always a good thing.
One highlight of "Fury" is that it features more vocals from Emma than previous albums by Sick Puppies have. She and Bryan Scott harmonize a lot in the album, and the back on forth singing is great too. She has a cool singing spot in the bridge of the heavy and empowering "Stick to Your Guns". Also, in "Black and Blue" and "Let Me Live" she gets perfect vocal solos in the verses that make the songs really shine a lot more. In "Beautiful Chaos" they do some really great back and forth singing that works very nicely for the song. Then you have the haunting "Walls (You Changed)", which is one of the few songs Sick Puppies has produced over the years that features Emma as the lead vocalist.
Best Buy's exclusive edition contains two bonus tracks called “Not Now” and ‘Charlatan”, which make it worth it to pick up this version of the album. “Not Now” is a bit punk rockish and is about someone realizing that they are not ready for a relationship to end that they thought was over. But the song that really makes this edition worth it is "Charlatan". It's a really heavy and fast paced song about calling someone out who used to be trustworthy but has turned into a very fake person. The emotion, energy, and satisfying instrumentals in this song make it one of the best songs on the album.
Overall, "Fury" is definitely worth listening to and delivers songs that most Sick Puppies fans should enjoy pretty easily. Its highlights include some really good heavy songs, a capable new singer, and more singing from Emma. What it perhaps could have used more of are the bass and guitar melodies that have helped make many past Sick Puppies songs so great in the past. Also, it's a fairly simple album with all the songs ranging between 3-4 minutes, but with the nice job that they've done on "Fury" there's no point in letting that keep one from enjoying it. And, of course, be sure to get the Best Buy exclusive version because the bonus tracks are well worth having.
Recommended tracks:
Charlatan
Black and Blue
Stick to Your Guns
Let Me Live
Earth to You
