This week's collection of singles show that there isn't always a bright side to look forward to.
Skid Row - Time Bomb
Even when a band makes a good decision, it can still be a disappointment. This song is a great case in point. Erik is a great choice to be the band's newest new singer (I'll leave the drama alone). His voice is great, and I love his work on H.E.A.T.'s "Tearing Down The Walls", but this song is cringe-worthy. The heavy riff is pretty good, and Erik sounds really good through the verses. After an ok chorus, Erik goes into a line saying, "tick, tick, tick, tick, boom." Ugh. Not only does it sound stupid, but P.O.D. already did that twenty years ago. Behind the times, indeed. Hard pass.
Avantasia - The Inmost Light
Well, I'm definitely losing my enthusiasm for the upcoming album. This new song might be the least interesting of them all, being quite short, being too traditionally power metal, and being a showcase for Michael Kiske. Sure, I don't like his voice, but there isn't enough song around him to even care. The chorus comes and goes with almost no hint it was the chorus, and it once again shows me that Tobi has been far better at writing hard rock in the last fifteen years than power metal. My expectations have been appropriately lowered.
Ascendia - Parasite
Speaking of lowered expectations. I was quite quizzical when I heard Ascendia's comeback single, and I am similarly confused now. I know bands change and evolve, but it still sounds like such a hard shift from the first album to this. That might be ok, but the shift is to something far less interesting, and arguably not done as well either. The music has been streamlined, but this is another example of a band trying to write poppier songs, but failing to do so. What made them unique has been subsumed by a far more generic take, and I just don't find this nearly as appealing. They can't wring the same drama out of the mainstream that Light The Torch has, just as an example.
Stryper - Transgressor
Why do older rock musicians feel like they have to continually get heavier to prove they haven't lost anything? Stryper has been on that road for a while now, and it still feels weird coming from them. Michael Sweet's shrieking is painfully dated, and painful to listen to as well. "Painkiller" was thirty years ago, and people only thought it was cool then because they wanted to wash "Turbo Lover" out of their ears. Stryper doing the same thing doesn't have that same impact, especially when they are doing banshee screams about how you're going to wind up in Hell if you don't follow the Lord. I could write a lot about that, but I'm not going to bother, since this is only Stryper we're talking about. Michael Sweet freely admits he churns these things out, and I don't know if I can come up with anything better to say about the quality level here.
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