Review Summary: I will forget. It'll be tougher forgiving.
Scars Remain wasn’t a bad album by any stretch, but it ultimately just failed to truly shine all the way through, leaving a largely inconsistent experience not unlike the band’s decent first release. Though it did have some improvements musically, it still relied too much upon vocalist and guitarist. Simply, there was potential and problems largely blended together.
Southern Hospitality really needed to knock it out of the park.
I’m going to say this now and get it out of my system: Brad Noah, we understand that you can play guitar. We understand you are influenced by classic metal bands. Now it’s time for you to understand something: subtlety goes a long way. You don’t have to play a solo or a lead on virtually every song. You are in a band. A collective group of musicians. For the love of God accept it. Not everything has to be about you. So, in case you didn’t get it, Brad has some talent on display here but he shoves it in your face so much that it just becomes of poor taste. Vocalist Kevin Young is probably the saving grace of this project: his screams have gotten harsher, his cleans smoother, and ultimately he’s just more impassioned. I will give him credit for this: he believes in every word he sings. Bass does nothing. Drums do nothing.
Let me draw you a mental picture: think of what would happen if 3 Doors Down tuned their guitars a little lower and amped up their distortion, threw in some screams, and became much more inclined to lyrics about Christianity. That’s this whole album (with the exception of graceful standout “Liar”) in a nutshell and it just sucks. Southern butt rock cliches abound, right up to the absolutely god-awful title and album art. If you’re going to force yourself through this one, “Liar” is a meh track in that it’s probably the closest to a really bad B-side of
Scars Remain.
Lyrically there’s more butt rock cliches. Take the title track. “Rain or shine-I feel alive tonight- It’s a great day to be alive”. All of this with a backdrop of greasy, showy, and overly pushy guitar work and nothing notable from bass or drums. “321” legitimately takes the concept of counting down “Here He comes. 321!” ad nauseum. Papa Roach took Metamorphosis and just eliminated the swearing and sexualized lyrics.
Scars Remain wasn’t amazing. It wasn’t groundbreaking. But it was worlds better than this. Seriously, this album is complete garbage. This is so forced and just so asinine that I can’t recommend it to anybody.
