Andrew’s Judgmental Album Reviews: Halestorm – Back From The Dead (2022)

December is always a weird time with new albums. Many sites like to put together their “Top” since I guess they don’t expect anything to make a last second sprint for best album of the year. Me on the other hand, I like to use the first couple weeks to catch up on a few albums I may have missed.

And that’s right where we are today! This album came out in May, but I was obviously distracted with other things and overlooked it. So now we get to take it for a spin and see where Lzzy and the boys are at in their career.

Halestorm is: Lzzy Hale (Guitars, Piano, Synth & Vocals), Arejay Hale (Drums & Backing Vocals), Joe Hottinger (Lead Guitar), Josh Smith (Bass)

• Artist: Halestorm
• Album: Back from the Dead (2022)
• Label: Atlantic
• Total Track Time: 37:46

Back From The Dead has a very southern groove rhythm and the actual tone of the instruments feels like it could’ve been a B Side to The Union Underground Across the Nation. Lyrically its just very much about quarantine and how it couldn’t hold her down/back. The song sounds good even if the lyrical content is something I’ve kinda become numb to. Wicked Ways has a few lyrical references to older songs in the catalogue. Lzzy’s more angry belting with a fair amount of vocal fry allows for the tone to never be lost. She’s got imperfections and even if she has her wicked ways it doesn’t make her inherently evil. “I’ve been the freak, I’ve disobeyed, Every single virtue that I ever praised, I get so high on feeling low, Love running with the sicker things, And sleeping with my ghosts, I burn a flame for every scar, I swore allegiance to the fire in my heart, That light’s a darkness I will never betray” – the second verse kinda gets the point across. Strange Girl okay they shift the musical approach a little…but I like it. They go for more of a futuristic/techno vibe. Reminds me of like Adema or Orgy. I do like the lyrical point, its laid out in a very catchy way, the bridge is a nice breakdown crowd singing point for a live concert, its a solidly arranged Pop Rock song. “So you can damn me straight to hell, You can crucify my name, You can throw me to the wolves, You can burn me in the flame, And say, She’s such a strange girl, Such a strange girl, The world needs strange girls, Just like me” – see its a good message.

Brightside is more about embracing the fact that life only gets darker so you need something to help you see the bright side. It definitely has a Saliva kind of vibe. That early 00s Hard Rock tone. A decent enough song, if not redundant for the sake of how popular music works nowadays.  The Steeple I feel like is supposed to be more of a rallying cry style of song, but really I’m just focused on the fact they made a rock song based off that little nursery rhyme with the hand gestures for here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors, see all the people. Not a terrible song, I’m just not gonna take it seriously at all. Terrible Things is yet another quarantine song, done more in the vein of Distrubed‘s take on Sound of Silence. Musically the song is somber and fine, but yeah the ear fatigue of quarantine themes has me counting the seconds until the next song. My Redemption starts with the synths and guitars so heavy that is sounds more like Muse than Halestorm. “Took back my life through an ocean of tears, In a hole down so deep, suffocating from fear, Running from purpose while losing my grip, Building thе walls that built me brick by brick” – there’s a good chance that a fair bit of the imagery in the song could be quarantine inspired; but the lyrics have a wide enough application that the concept of building yourself back up for redemption transcends easy potential connections.

Bombshell is interestingly worded in the approach on how women are treated in the industry. I especially enjoy the bridge, “She’s not fragile like a flower, She is fragile like a bomb”. I like the fact that bombshell isn’t being used to describe a “gorgeous woman” but more a woman ready to explode. I Come First is a song where I hope there might’ve been some sexual word play since they’ve done that in the past, but this is more of a “know your worth” style of song. The song isn’t terrible, but it is wholly forgettable. Psycho Crazy well the song isn’t walking down any new avenues. The typical concept of someone pointing out her issues and calling her crazy…so she’ll up the ante. “If you want crazy, I’ll give you psycho, So don’t make me mad, I’ll get sick in the head, And show you what you don’t know, If you want crazy, I’ll give you psycho” – I would say the vibe is a generally venomous on the road to break up song. Decent, but not great. Raise Your Horns is more like Hallelujah than a rock song. A piano ballad done with the lighters swaying in the crowd concept. I wasn’t anticipating ending the album with this kind of song.

Okay, I…don’t know why this album was hyped so hard. It wasn’t awful, so don’t get it twisted. It’s just such…bland Hard Rock. There were basically 3 songs with clever wording or a message that wasn’t trite. And I feel like ending the song with something that sounded more like a church hymnal, after the last few songs weren’t very strong, is a heavy misstep.

The album wasn’t awful, but God was it boring.

Final Judgment: 5.85/10