Quick Reviews: Myles Kennedy & Smash Atoms

For a change, we've got two good ones this week.

Myles Kennedy - The Art Of Letting Go

If eventually everything comes full circle, this album is a fitting example of that. Myles' solo career has now reached a point where he is pulling from all three of his phases, filling the gaps between them in a way that will probably satisfy everyone. This record sounds like what Alter Bridge used to be, with a few hints of their current obsession with heaviness, while also pulling a few guitar licks from his time with Slash. It's very much a melding of everything Myles has been doing all in one album, which happens to fit his voice more than anything else.

Both the production of the last Slash album, and the continued down-tuning of Alter Bridge, have pushed Myles' voice into its most shrill range. He avoids that on this record, and it's all the better for it. These songs are in the right place for his voice to sell the hooks, which he does well. Myles mostly avoids the huge soaring melodies intended for European stadiums, and focuses on more 'songwriter' style melodies.

If you have been a bit put off by Alter Bridge morphing from a rock to a metal band, this album is the perfect antidote. Myles is a rock singer, not a metal singer, and having the proper level of heaviness is key. This record is heavy, yes, but only as a predicate to having good songs. That's a lesson some other bands have yet to learn.

Smash Atoms - Smash Atoms

We have noted there is an increase in the number of bands making attempts at reviving the sound of grunge. Most of those bands do a decent job of capturing the sound, but they don't necessarily capture the spirit. That can be a good thing if you weren't into grunge when it came out (as I wasn't, since I was slightly too young to have been listening at its height), but it also exposes a lack of understanding of what made grunge what it was. The same is true of the retro 70s revival, which underscores either how little thought it given into some of these things, or how much worthless thought I put into it.

Smash Atoms aren't a clone of Alice In Chains, but they sort of are. The sound is ripped straight from their catalog, with the heavy bends in the riffs, and the strained harmonies giving that same haunting tone. The sound of the record is massive, with the guitars filling every corner of the sonic landscape. And yet, there is room for the gritty vocals to stand out.

The band delivers on the songs as well. These songs have big, muscular hooks that play into the power of the sound. I would imagine most people who have spent the last thirty years loving "Would?" and "Man In the Box" will be intrigued by how much Smash Atoms sounds like a rebirth of that period of time. There isn't the same tortured pain to be found here, but maybe we're better off not being so far down that hole. In any case, Smash Atoms is easily the best of these neo-grunge bands that have popped up, and this record has a sneaky chance to be one of the better albums of the year.