Review Summary: Sex, drugs, rock and roll. What’s not to like?
When Danny Worsnop left Asking Alexandria and went clean from his drug-addled ways, it’s fair to say that everyone was fairly upset. By “everyone”, I mean a few scene girls and young impressionable Facebook fans. The rest of us were just happy that the Asking Alexandria phenomenon had crashed, burned, and would never fly again; not with Danny at the helm, at least. Some wondered what Danny would go on to create next, some were concerned that his next project would be awful, and some simply couldn't care less.
But the worried needn't have worried, haters needn't have hated, and ain'ters needn't have, erm, ain'ted. From the first note of Dancing On Nails, to the final note of I Tried, you are hit with great riffs, very good singing, and lots of energy. This is sex, drugs, and rock and roll at its purest and finest. It's got sex (in most of the songs), drugs (that one line about cocaine in One More Night) and rock and roll (do I even need to explain this one?) It's not trying to prove anything, it's just out there. It's big, it's bold, and it doesn't care what you think.
Danny mostly uses clean singing here, with the odd scream/unclean vocals here and there. As his clean singing was a highlight of his work with Asking Alexandria, it only makes sense to showcase them here. His voice has a good range and is really suited to this style of music. There is also a nice mix of fast/mid tempo rockers and slower balladesque songs. With other bands, I have been inclined to enjoy the former and skip the latter. I think that some bands just throw the slower songs in there to make it seem like they have more creativity and variety than they actually have. However, I was never bored for one second for the entirety of this album. In fact, the slower songs serve as highlights (Someday, I Tried) as opposed to purely filler. There is in fact not a bad song on this album.
However, I do have some gripes about this album. Every song seems to be about love and/or sex. While this is not a bad topic for music, I feel that they could have perhaps expanded their horizons in this area. Some more lyrical variety would have been nice. Even Asking Alexandria had more lyrical variety than this. The album also could have been a bit longer. Much like a great party, it starts off great, doesn't let up, and it’s over all too soon. And just being pedantic, the single version of Denial is different to (and in my opinion slightly better than) the album version.
But when an album rocks this hard, it's easy to forgive these minor stumbles. Despite these faults, I found it hard not to headbang, dance around the room and even sing along (don’t judge me). Is this the most rocking album of 2015 so far? Most definitely. I just hope that on the next album they introduce more lyrical variety, that they make the album a bit longer, and that Danny loses that beard so he doesn't look like a lumberjack who got lost in the woods after a 3 day long bender (See “Dancing On Nails” music video). Maybe then they will create a truly great modern rock and roll gem.
