Album Review: Fozzy - Boombox

Fame is its own inertia. Once you achieve it, you almost have to work to lose the momentum of people already knowing your name. That does happen, but for the most part you see the same names continue to populate the mainstream. Do we think that's because those are all the best artists, and they never do any wrong? Of course not. Once we're comfortable with someone, they get attention and chart positions simply because people are already aware of them.

That's what happened with Fozzy. Are they a good band? No. Are they a terrible band? No. They're blandly average, but because Chris Jericho is famous, they have gotten a level of attention (and acclaim) that far exceeds their musical worth. They're just taking advantage of the system, so it's not that I'm blaming them. I'm just saying no matter how many times you might hear one of these songs on the radio in the next few months, Fozzy is probably only popular because of a generation of wrestling fans.

Or perhaps the mainstream really is the lowest common denominator. Either way, "Judas" became a major rock radio hit, despite it being merely an ok song. All the limitations of Fozzy were on display, but the slick pandering pulled people in just like a heel's promo makes you want to buy a ticket to watch him get his ass kicked. And now that Fozzy is a main event act in the rock world (did I really just say that?), it doesn't really matter what this album has to offer. Bands only move down the bill when they are truly and forever out of gas.

Fozzy is all in on playing for another radio hit. If you remember the early days of the band, when they weren't sure if they were a melodic band, a heavy band, or a prog band, the focus they now show is actually a positive development. But what they are focused on sounds so foreign to what the beginnings of the band were, I'm not sure I can say this all feels genuine. What started as a love of 80s rock and metal is now competing with Five Finger Death Punch for our attention.

The band has (I assume) brought in help on the songwriting front, and they've hit all the marks of popular radio rock. They fit perfectly with the Shinedowns of the world, and there are multiple songs here that will probably get plenty of airplay. "Sane" already does, and "I Still Burn" will serve quite well as a softer song that isn't a ballad, even if I find the backing vocal/synth line at the end of the chorus extremely annoying. It's the right kind of inoffensive to not annoy anyone.

"Purifier" is one of the best songs, with a quite heavy opening riff, and then a melodic chorus that makes the best use of Jericho. For as long as Fozzy has been around, I have not been won over by his voice, and every time they try to go down the heavier route, it just doesn't work for me. His tone has always struck me as odd, and his voice is too thin to compete with a band playing at full blast. Then add on what sounds like plenty of auto-tune on the chorus of "Army Of One", and it seems like at every turn there's something about Fozzy that catches your ear in the wrong way.

The intro to "Ugly On The Inside" is another of those moments, where Jericho is going for an almost Peter Steele approach on the first few lines, but the warble doesn't sound cool at all being an octave higher. Those are vocals I would have left on the cutting room floor. Actually, the whole song should have been, since the chorus is pathetic even for school children. Jericho spells out the playground taunt, "U.G.L.Y., you ain't got no alibi". I have another four-letter word I want to shout back at him. He's in his fifties, and thinks this is cool stuff. I'm just embarrassed.

Then "Relax" follows as the most repetitive song on the album. I don't even know if it's even a song, since it sounded like one droning line over and over until something that's supposed to be a chorus comes along. It sounds like the result of a writing session after everyone has already gotten drunk, and they don't have the attention span to stay awake long enough to remember they're even writing a song. It shows the gap between the good songs and bad songs on this album is a chasm. You can easily tell what the singles will be, and which songs are just there so they have a record to promote on tour.

So here's the deal; Fozzy has three or four strong songs on this record that, aside from being generic, do everything you want from radio rock. Those songs are worth listening to, and I won't say otherwise. As an album, however, Fozzy has disappointed yet again. "Boombox" feels inauthentic, it feels pandering, and the filler is so bad I can't excuse it. Whatever you hear on your radio is all the Fozzy you'll need to hear.