Review: Stone Sour – Hydrograd
Now six albums in, Stone Sour have cemented themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the hard rock world! They will be embarking on a UK tour later this year in support of their new album Hydrograd, the follow-up to 2013’s House of Gold & Bones Part 2 and is the first studio album to not feature original guitarist James Root. Root left the band in late 2013 citing musical differences and since then the band has released two covers albums.
The album clocks in at just over an hour, is 15 tracks long and honestly comes up slightly lacking. The album has some fantastic songs, Song 3 for example, that really catch some of the magic that Stone Sour possess. It’s a song that will be stuck in your head for days and that has had great success on rock radio worldwide. Coupled with bouts of heavy passion that Corey Taylor’s voice lends itself to perfectly in Thank God It’s Over the blue prints of what has made Stone Sour such a strong band are evident on this album. However, you could say this album is ever so slightly more filler than killer. Discounting the opening, YSIF, which is probably the funniest opening to an album I have ever heard, there are 14 full tracks on this album, of which 6 are pretty good songs, songs I would want to see in Stone Sour’s live set. The rest just feels like filler that the album could have done without. Add one or two of them tracks in and you have a decent album, not the best, but by no means bad. But 8 tracks that I could easily leave does not a good album make. St Marie for example catches exactly what I am saying. Did we need an acoustic, choir backed song on the album? Not really. And you’ll find yourself throughout wondering just why?
The songs that are good, are really good. They are full on arena rock anthems! They hit all the right marks, uncompromising and demonstrating just how much Stone Sour have grown and evolved from a so-called side project to a band set for domination. So arguably, the worst part of this album, is that to find the good ones, you need to sit through the other ones. Without them, this would be a short and sweet album, you’d be left almost begging for more. In its current state though, let’s just say they should have made Thank God It’s Over the final song on the album.
Stone Sour are at a pretty critical time in their career. Six albums in, with a back catalogue that is stronger than most, they need to decide how they want to play the game. Do they want to tour Hydrograd, playing 3 or 4 songs in their set, just for on the next album cycle to have dropped all of them and repeat that for the next 10 years, or do they want to release some songs that have a little bit of longevity in them? Speaking as a fan, as strong as their back catalogue is, they don’t have the songs to just sit back and ride out the rest of their career with meh albums. They aren’t Weezer.
As mentioned, there is a real sense of evolution coming from this album. Stone Sour are on their way to becoming a full on arena rock and worldwide. I can feel them moving into that territory with this album which is by no means a bad thing. Maybe this time though, they just slightly missed the mark, but I honestly think that if they learn from this album, Stone Sour 7 could be their best work. Hydrograd however, is definitely not that. Not by a long a shot.
3/5
Hydrograd is released worldwide, July 30th via Road Runner Records!
Notable tracks: Song 3, Fabuless, Thank God It’s Over
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Reviewed by Alexander Rawstorne
