Your comment reeks of the same type who used to whine when Metallica started to gain popularity when the Black album came out.
Halestorm is awesome. I agree, their first album was a bit on the poppy side, but that in no way makes them a "female fronted Nickelback."
That comment alone loses you cred.
Also, you seem to think turning metal is the only way to stay non-mainstream. You ALSO seem to think radio play is a negative thing. Here's a cold hard fact for you to sit on...whether it plays on radio or not doesn't denote whether it's good music or not and the level of heaviness ALSO doesn't denote whether it's good or not.
I'm a fan of Halestorm BECAUSE of who they are....NOT because of who I WANT them to be.
Hard Rock with a slight Metal edge is what they are and what they will always be, and I think it's awesome.
Side note: Taylor Swift would fuck up ANY of Halestorm's songs. Katy Perry has a great voice, though, and I'm willing to bet she'd make a great rock singer, if put in the right situation. Just cause her music sux doesn't mean she's bad, too lol.

Written by lilangus on 02.09.2015 at 18:38

Your comment reeks of the same type who used to whine when Metallica started to gain popularity when the Black album came out.
Halestorm is awesome. I agree, their first album was a bit on the poppy side, but that in no way makes them a "female fronted Nickelback."
That comment alone loses you cred.
Also, you seem to think turning metal is the only way to stay non-mainstream. You ALSO seem to think radio play is a negative thing. Here's a cold hard fact for you to sit on...whether it plays on radio or not doesn't denote whether it's good music or not and the level of heaviness ALSO doesn't denote whether it's good or not.
I'm a fan of Halestorm BECAUSE of who they are....NOT because of who I WANT them to be.
Hard Rock with a slight Metal edge is what they are and what they will always be, and I think it's awesome.
Side note: Taylor Swift would fuck up ANY of Halestorm's songs. Katy Perry has a great voice, though, and I'm willing to bet she'd make a great rock singer, if put in the right situation. Just cause her music sux doesn't mean she's bad, too lol.

This album and this review are a few years old now, but I still stand by everything I wrote.

I want Halestorm to embrace their heavier side not because I think it is the only way they can escape the bounds of the mainstream, but because I think they have shown great potential in that field and I find their heaviest material to be their best. That does not mean that all songs and bands are automatically of a higher quality the heavier they are, but I find that to be the trend with Halestorm, and I see delving further as a potential avenue for them to get better. It has been a little while already since I listened to it, but if I recall correctly, Into the Wild Life veered away from the mainstream to a greater degree and yet did not get significantly heavier; in fact, they went in an entirely different and more unique direction. They surprised me and I enjoyed it, even if it did not fulfill my wishes.

I don't believe that radio play is a negative in and of itself, even if we ignore the vastly conspiratorial string-pulling that orchestrates the airwaves, the charts, and the success of new artists, and the fact that radio is designed to reduce artists to their lowest common denominators and make them as uniform as possible. No song is automatically worse for having been broadcast or for becoming popular. Good music is good music regardless of how much radio play it receives - but if it sounds obviously tailored for that specific purpose, then I absolutely think it loses something, both in terms of basic quality and artistic integrity. To me, a lot of Halestorm's material, especially on the first album, sounds incredibly generic, stale, sterile, cliche, and contrived - just like Nickelback or Taylor Swift or Katy Perry - and that defines why "radio-friendly" is so often a pejorative term. It does not ring true.

I am a moderate fan of Halestorm because of what they are. I would not listen to this band if I only had time to impose my own will upon them and daydream of the band I want them to be, but enjoying them for what they are does not preclude me from wishing they could execute their style in a more meaningful and interesting fashion.

Since it seems that you have registered solely for the purpose of lambasting my work and are new to this site, I would like to formally welcome you to Metal Storm, where you are very welcome to write your own review of this or any album in defense of your opinion. As a staff member, however, I am the sort of person who proofreads and approves those reviews, and we do expect a certain level of maturity and civility. You clearly have very strong feelings about this album, and they would probably be better put to use in a creative fashion than in a silly comment on an old review of mine.