Review Summary: All in all, while fans are happy to have new Element Eighty in 2023, this album relies a bit too much on nostalgia and if you didn’t grow up with them maybe this isn’t the right place to start with.
Element Eighty is a nu metal/alternative metal band from Texas. The band released their debut album, Mercuric, in 2001 through an independent label Pale Star Records. Just two years later the band signed a record deal with Universal Records and released their self-titled sophomore album. The band gained attention through the song “Broken Promises”, featured on the Need for Speed: Underground soundtrack. Outside of said appearance, the label did little to nothing to promote the album which lead the band to split with the major label. Their third and final album before going to hiatus in 2009, The Bear, was released in 2005 through their own record label Texas Cries.
18 years later and the band returns with a new album fittingly titled “A.D.” (After Death) which is essentially a celebration in nostalgia and executes it fairly well. While the band doesn’t bother in developing their sound in any way, David Galloway and co. have focused on songwriting and taking bits and pieces from each of their past three albums. For example, “Control” harkens back to the rawer heavy metal aspects of Mercuric as well as the groovy “Resistance”. Matt Woods plays cool riffs per usual, along with his usual guitar “screeches” (for lack of a better word) and occasional solos as well.
David Galloway’s vocals are as soaring as ever, and his presence is always welcome in all of their releases. His range goes from high pitch sung melodies, to growling and loud panther-like screaming * la Howard Jones. One of his best performance comes in the form of “Mercury Man”, which probably is the best song of the album featuring the melodious nature of “Broken Promises” combined with The Bear’s metalcore influence. The song starts off with acoustic guitars and David’s soft crooning, then turns to an emotional chorus and ultimately culminates with a heavy breakdown with Galloway intensely screaming on top. Speaking of metalcore influence, the band goes all in with “Sea of Red Shoulders”, which is one of their fastest songs and ends up being the heaviest of the album.
There´s a glimpse of experimentation in “Frozen”, which starts off with a jazzy bassline but then erupts with David singing “I want to love you from the inside out”, and ending with “I want to *** you from the inside out”. Yes, it´s an Element Eighty album and lyrics have never been their forté or focus. Their songs are usually about heartbreak, despair or macho posturing, often in a tongue in cheek manner. The glaring exception being “Defender”, which works more as a political statement but then again coming in too much on the nose with aggression. This can easily be ignored by the nature of the songs themselves and the style, and ultimately doesn´t take away much of the fun which is what this is about, anyways.
More on the negatives: again, the album relies a bit too much on familiarity and doesn’t try to do anything too far away from their usual style. While you could argue they can’t do much with their sound, The Bear featured some level of development with syncopated rhythms and digging up some of their progressive tendencies, this is largely absent here. Another issue is there aren’t too many songs that stand out, and David’s melodies sometimes sound off (“Radio Silence” and “Frozen” come to mind). So, all in all, while fans will be happy to have new Element Eighty in 2023, this album relies a bit too much on nostalgia and if you didn’t grow up with them maybe this isn’t the right place to start with.
