When I was a kid I often submerged myself in music, or more specifically whole albums. Operation: Mindcrime (later LIVECrime). Master of Puppets. Images and Words. High Tension Wires. Focus. Albums that are not necessarily immediate, but requiring attention, patience to get the best from. Life was the thing that happened between slipping on a set of headphones and disappearing into the music, delving into the songs, learning the parts, melodies, rhythm patterns, lyrics. The above often had me finding new things after weeks of constant listening.
These are all albums that work best as total entities, consumed whole rather than dipped into or put on in the background as aural wallpaper. The sorts of albums to put on when you can listen to them start to finish without interruption. Gestalt albums where the whole thing is greater than the sum of the parts, no matter how great those individual parts may be. Which of course should set you up nicely for what I’m going to say about this one.
I’ve been looping House of Gold and Bones Part 1. It gets stronger with each play, and reveals a greatness that the band have more than hinted at before but never quite attained. HoGB1 (as it shall be henceforth referred) is a concept album about the inner struggles of the protagonist after a catastrophic relationship failure. Rather than talk about individual tracks (many of which hit or clear the heights of the band’s previous best), I’d simply say that the album is by turns brutal and beautiful, savage, delicate and raging. Instrumentation is varied – armour piercing guitar tones give way to strings and delicate synth parts. Corey Taylor once again proves himself one of the best vocalists in rock today. Whilst he may not have the range of, say a Dickinson or Tate, he has a great melodic sensibility, projects powerfully, and has great versatility going from a contemptuous snarl to a whisper to a scream in the space of the same song. He also has great character – whether it’s wounded and vulnerable or raging and pissed off, the vocals are as much a part of the instrumentation as the actual instruments. Lyrically it’s clever and blackly funny (‘I don’t mind my self-loathing, and I don’t need help from you’). The rest of the band acquit themselves in equal fashion – rhythm section drummer Roy Mayorga and on-loan-from-Skid-Row bassist Rachel Bolan bring the assault and battery, whilst guitarists Josh Rand and James Root lay down taut, precise, inventive rhythms and scything fleet-fingered solos. Basically HoGB1 takes everything that was good about Stone Sour on past albums and cranks it to eleven. In line with the concept album idea, the song arrangement and ordering has a very definite ‘narrative flow’ to it
Absolutely magnificent. Do your ears and brain a favour and get a copy. Here’s hoping Part 2 can match up, and also that they perform both albums in their entirety live…
Get Off My Lawn... 