Album Review: Halestorm - Back From The Dead

Over the last few years, we have all been 'through something'. I'm not sure any of us can honestly say we experienced everything the world has endured without it having any effect on our mental health. That phrase has always been rather opaque, because what counts as 'healthy' is a moving target we often have only the most tenuous of grips on. No matter how well we know ourselves, no matter how much confidence we project outwardly, being cut off from so much we loved was going to stop the world so the black clouds hang over our heads. Halestorm's last album, "Vicious", was a statement of power and self-love, where Lzzy Hale was owning her identity, and we were able to absorb her confidence to use as our own.

That was a main reason "Vicious" earned Album Of The Year honors from me, but we are now living in very different times, and we need a new message to match. "Back From The Dead" is the soundtrack to Lzzy rediscovering herself after the rock and roll machine was shut down, digging deeper into herself to find what was beneath her rock star life. This album is the most honest statement yet of Lzzy as a human being.

The title track opens the record as a defiant statement about not letting our troubles get the best of us. When it feels like we might slip into the abyss, it takes strength, and sometimes a little help, to find our way back into the light. The power of music is one of those things Lzzy used to align the stars back in her favor, using the power of her huge voice and the massive riff to push so much air the vacuum of space wasn't big enough to stop the waves from traveling. It's as much a mission statement as a song intended to be a single; a song that reminds us a grave can sit unoccupied for ages, used for other purposes until its time. Perhaps Lzzy is using it as a flower bed for now.

Mental health is a heavy topic, and the record takes that to heart, being the heaviest and rawest record Halestorm has ever made. This is the sound of the band as a live experience, the pure distillation of cranked amps and massive vocals as a force for communal good. Lzzy doesn't use her cleanest voice much on the record, using her grit to sand away the polish we cover ourselves in to hide the truth. It's the perfect approach with the record being this heavy. "Vicious" was more biting, while "Back From The Dead" is more stomping. The grooves and rhythms are a slow crush, leaving enough time between every head bang to feel our necks straining at the limit of our flexibility.

"The Steeple" is Lzzy's love letter to rock, and to the fans, where she tells us it is her relationship with music that is her religion. Music is what she has faith in, and the power of rock is sometimes easier to believe in than anything else. Ok, that part is me reading too much into things, but it's hard not to listen to her voice belting out the last note of the song and not feel like she is being baptized in the fires of rock and roll. It isn't 'scream therapy', but it might have the same purpose, just better focused.

On "Terrible Things", Lzzy looks at all that is wrong in the world, but she realizes she is not one of those things as long as she confronts the demons in herself. It is only when you run from them that you lose your power, you lose your good name. So long as you are pushing to move forward, the progress is less important than the effort. That is echoed in "My Redemption", where Lzzy understands it is only her own opinion of who she is that matters. We don't need to save her, or forgive her. She only needs to embrace who she is to be her true self, and no other voice can ever give a better compliment than her own.

That's where "Bombshell" lands, as Lzzy tells us no one is ever going to shut her up, because she understands the power she holds in her position, and she plans to use it. We can read this as Lzzy's confidence reaching full flight, or as Lzzy continuing on in her advocacy for women in the world of rock. It works in both contexts, because the artist's voice is often overlooked in favor of soundbites and images. But it's in that image, when it generates such interest, that the message can best be conveyed.

"Back From The Dead" is a cathartic experience for Lzzy, and that focus on personal realization results in the band's most cohesive album yet. There are fewer twists and adjustments to their sound from song to song, instead pummeling us with a record that will come to life on the stage. "Back From The Dead" is a record that knows tearing down the walls we erect isn't a job for nuance and subtlety. We have to bulldoze the past to find the seeds of the future, and that is what Lzzy does in these songs. A journey back from the dark side was never going to have the innuendo of their debut album, or the pop polish of "The Strange Case Of...", or the sexy attitude of "Vicious".

This record is different, but it's exactly what it needs to be. Lzzy's honesty shines through, and no matter how hard the journey might be, she has come out the other side a wiser and more mature woman. Lzzy is back, Halestorm is back, and they still believe in the healing magic of rock.