Review Summary: An album lacking substance, creativity, and original songwriting skills.
Who would have thought that this side-project/or not? for members of Mudvayne, Nothingface, Pantera, and Damageplan, would have produced three albums in 5 years. Impressive? Well it's been quite a mediocre ride that has gotten worse with each album. They produce albums too fast, and from the evidence of their first record, there was promise that this group could develop into something great. But they grind on quickly thought-up riffs that are too often under-ground quality. They fail to have a sense of good chorus-writing for the majority of their cuts as well, and when they try to change it up and go soft, it barely ever works well. The sad thing is, they are in love with the repetition.
Of course, this is their way, and they embrace it, or at least that's their excuse for Hellyeah being the way it is. But Chad Gray has gone flat, at first he had the ability to generate effective party-not-give-a-F** lyrics and it quickly waned, especially on this, Band of Brothers, less impressive and more headache-inducing than its' predecessors. They've taken a "more metal" turn as well, intentionally, and have made an album full of screaming, meaningless anger (Gray creates his own problems with other people and war), guitar riffs that are far weaker than anything from these mens' main bands, and poor song structure.
"War in Me" kicks things off, and you just wait for things to get exciting, but they only get fast and loud. The boring verse rolls while Gray screams at you and before you know it the chorus happens and your onto the next verse, realizing this isn't going to get much better. Fortunately the song does have a great guitar solo from Tribett and Maxwell, and it's really great. Too bad Hellyeah rarely incorporates good solos into any of their songs, and fail to see how effective this would be. Pantera carried solos with nearly every song, and they no doubt were the pins on the songs in listeners minds. Hellyeah would easily benefit from practicing a similar idea. So Tribett and Maxwell are no Dimebag Darrels, but the solos they do throw in always succeed and certainly less classic and more "Maxwell and Tribett" styled riffs would make things interesting.
They just don't try anything they should on this boring album that feels so much longer than it is. Band of Brothers the song, Drink Drank Drunk, and What it Takes To Be Me, are the only greats on the album, and even they have their problems (Band of Brothers is way too long, it's common sense). Rage/Burn is almost insulting with its use of melodies that sound like they were all borrowed from other songs written in the collective discography of all of these guys, save for the very short but sweet solo in the bridge.
The soft-shot "Between you and nowhere" is a sleeper, Bigger God is tiresome, and Call it Like I See it through WM Free ride the same main notes and are hardly distinguishable. Dig Myself a Hole is alright, and like I said, the final track is great, but it's almost hard to make it that far in the album.
Hellyeah brags about recording in the luxurious studio Vinnie Paul built for them to just hang out in and record. They say it makes writing a record a quick process, but maybe they should be more patient. Maybe they should only have one album out, possibly two, but churning out three in almost less than five years hasn't worked out for them. It has become too hard to hear Gray screaming whiney lyrics at you over bludgeoning repetitive riffs.
