All Hope Is Gone

So I obtained this from itunes and was listening to it all day at work. Let me just state that I detested this band for a long time. I suppose some of that was just being jealous those dudes from Des Moines were having way more success than any of us were. However, now that they are like, ridiculously huge, and I haven't set foot on a stage in almost 4 years (really?), I can be much more objective. I REALLY liked Volume 3 and thought that album struck a really good balance between good songwriting and blunt force trauma. It's a pretty constant staple in the ipod I use for running/cycling.
So I heard the song Psychosocial and was convinced enough by it that this album would be in that same direction (I thought Iowa was too much gutteral and not enough song craft, and I don't give a shit about anything before that). I've run through all the songs maybe 3-4 times now and I definitely have my faves. Psychosocial, Gehanna (in all its Alice in Chains throwback glory) and Snuff are excellent. There's some other really good ones too. The dudes who play the 'auxillary percussion' or whatever are a lot more pronounced here which is nice. The riffs are less of the gutteral c sharp nonsense and more thrashy than before. Lots more harmonies too, and the guitar solos are less of that directionless frenetic shit on Vol 3 and more melodic and do what a guitar solo should do. Basically it feels like more of a cross between Stone Sour and Slipknot in that regard (which is a good thing IM oh so HO). It's not as experimental as Vol 3 with the non-heavy shit (although we still have a pretty solid acoustic track), but Corey's vocals definitely stretch. As of right now, I'd call him the MVP of this outing. We have some killer falsetto things that work ridiculously well against the music (and not in that whiney Thom Yorke kinda way). I'm glad they are keeping an emphasis on vocal hooks throughout. That was something Iowa lacked and Vol 3 was hinting at.
I dunno if you should buy this or not. Basically if you like Stone Sour's last one, you'll like this, and if you LOVED Iowa and hated Vol 3, you probably won't like it. But it's here if you're so inclined.



