While God may be all-powerful, we are not, and rarely is that as clear as when we are faced with picking up the pieces and reassembling our shattered psyches. While it's possible that knowing the secrets of the universe would guarantee a mental breakdown, our struggle to maintain sanity in the face of a world that seldom makes sense is in many ways the very basis of the existence of art. We use art in every form as a means of trying to seek out and share a truth we don't know how to build a conversation around.
Lzzy Hale has been bravely honest about needing music to pull her back from when it feels like gravity is the force collapsing our chests from inside us. This album is the chronicle of Lzzy's journey to rediscover who she is, who she wants to be, and the nugget of happiness that some of us are never able to see through the thick walls of the ore buried in our hearts. On "Everest" she tells us that she "won't ever rest" until climbing the proverbial mountain high enough to see the promised land. This is not a case like Jim Steinman saying you have to go over the top to see what's on the other side, this is needing to find high ground to realize how deep the hole we were in truly was, and how far we have come.
The raw honesty of Lzzy's writing is matched by the band and production of "Everest", which is the band's most metallic album yet. The polish that made their early records so irresistible is stripped away in favor of guitars whose grit can be felt, and a mix that moves Lzzy's voice around so we can hear every angle of her confessions.
"Sometimes loving you feels like dying" she sings on "Shiver", which is a terrifying bit of truth. For as much as we have written about love in our existence, we still cannot explain exactly how or why it happens, nor can we control who comes to consume us. To give yourself to another person is to put your flaws on display and hope that person doesn't see them as the mortal wounds that we often do. Unrecoited love is among the most painful experiences we can have in life, and 'unrecoitus' (as I have satirically coined the term) only brings a momentary reprieve before the tissue needs to be put to its proper use to wipe away a tear again.
"Shiver" is a lovely slice of hard rock with melodic phrasing from Joe Hottinger pulled from the era of classic rock. Followed by the almost bluesy jazz power ballad "Like A Woman Can", Halestorm is not just pulling from their souls, they are pulling from across time. Those songs carry the spirit of classic rock in them, from a time before the homogenization to fit the narrowing niches of radio formats.
Whether it's the 'scream to the heavens' hymnal vocals of "Rain Your Blood On Me", or the Dio-esque epic structure of "Darkness Always Wins", the band is going wherever they must to tell the stories they need to tell. Some thoughts are too raw for pop songs, some feelings too complex to fit into tighter structures. The work Lzzy has done to build the best version of herself is the work of a lifetime, and requires an album that explores every facet of her relationship with music over the years. You can't paint the full image of yourself in just one color, and you can't tell the full story of yourself with just one tone.
My favorite song on the album might just be "Gather The Lambs", which blends atmospheric guitars with the sweetest melody of the song cycle, but also asks an existential question; "Why does everybody run?" That is one I have asked myself nearly every day for the last couple of years. To return to the thought I started with, there is a way in which I would argue I feel like the center of the universe; that being the reality in physics where the universe is constantly expanding, so having people and love drifting further away with every breath would fit the bill. It's easy to feel like a black hole when people avoid getting close for fear of being destroyed.
That leads into the feelings of the later songs, where Lzzy tells us she feels broken and misunderstood on "Broken Doll", and how "this loneliness is killing me". The spotlight does not guarantee people will truly see you, nor does telling your truth in a song guarantee people will truly hear you. Homer Simpson told us once that "it takes two to lie; one to lie and one to listen". There is real truth in that joke, because no matter how honest we are about who we are and what we're dealing with, we cannot make other people hear us, let alone understand what we're saying.
In that respect, "Everest" is less an album about the songs than it is an album about Lzzy making her clearest and most direct statement to us yet. By stripping away the gloss, we can only hear the power. By bouncing less on the hooks, we can only hear her voice shredding itself to get through to us. It takes bravery to change the formula and take risks because that's what honesty requires you to do.
Lzzy is a brave soul to share herself with us in this way. On the beautiful power ballad that closes the album, she asks "how will you remember me?" Hopefully, I will be able to say I remember her as her truth. I would hate to think I didn't properly hear a voice that is so dear and important to me.
