Review Summary: Modern rock that is definitely recorded on a compact disc.
QUICK WRITEUP:
If there's one thing that's always bugged me, it's that Corey "From Slipknot" Taylor has one of my absolute favorite singing voices and styles in music, but succeeds in staying in acts that I can only listen to for short periods of time. At least these days. In my younger days, I would jam out to the first Slipknot record with reckless abandon. I was also high a lot, so that may have had something to do with it.
And so it is with Stone Sour and their latest effort,
Audio Secrecy, and Taylors wit and lyrical ability even seem to have dulled with their (even more) toned down, made-for-Clear-Channel effort. In the face of what seems to be an ever-saturating and homogenizing sorta-metal and stripper rock scene that populates modern radio, Stone Sour have fallen a bit back in the pack with this disc. I'm not coming outright and saying there's nothing worth listening to on Audio Secrecy, and in fact there's quite a few things here that are quite good, but it's not a stellar album by any metric.
If you've purchased a modern rock album any time in the last five years, you know what to expect here: Big, singalong choruses. Crunch in the verse. Interspersed melodies. Some good riffs.
In short, it's better than Five Finger Death Punch, but you're not going to have to tie your shoes on tight in fear of your socks being blown off.
