After the brief rest, the noise is cranked again for “Evolve”. We’re back in familiar territory with the lighter “Creatures” which flows beautifully once it gets going. You can’t blame a band for experimenting, and they don’t push it too far, but it’s still a little too out of the park for me. “Darkside” I found enjoyable but quirky with an odd, overly cheerful section around the middle which fits in with the song, but is still a little off-kilter. Lyrically, this is probably one of the best tracks on here. Well, here’s “Monsters” to fill that gap and it does so with aplomb including a great guitar solo around the three minute mark before Smith’s vocals once again take the fore. “Pyro” which follows adds to the blitzing run, a fast-paced adrenaline injection, and makes for a great trio of songs which together sum Shinedown’s musical range up. Followed by the almost-a-ballad-until-it-gets-going “Kill Your Conscience” and you have the best back-to-back pairing on Attention Attention. ![]() Melodic yet with a great drumbeat to maintain the forward/back motion of the neck it’s probably the best track on the album. It’s the title track that’s the first to really get the album going, though. Another pounding number with catchy repeated vocals it’s perhaps just a little too poppy in places for some, but the rockier overtones make up for it. “Black Soul”‘s plinky-plunk, keyboard-driven intro is rather unusual, but it’s that “drop” when the Shinedown sound really comes to the fore. “ Devil” is heavier Shinedown-by-numbers, designed to get the head nodding with some more mellow sections but it’s the crushing chorus which remains stuck in the brain afterwards. Past the short industrial intro track, the album proper blasts into life with familiar strained strings and belted drums before Brent Smith’s trademark vocals trample all in their path. Beginning in a dark place, the like of which many of us have experienced, it progresses through them facing their demons and eventually rising out the depths and back into daylight. It was indeed the tail end of 2015 when they released Threat To Survival since which time they’ve done the usual tour rotation including a surprising / controversial (delete as appropriate) stint with the mighty Maiden.Īttention Attention is a concept album of sorts, a trip through the mental state of an unknown protagonist. Once again, this site gets the better of me and I’m sat staring at a new Shinedown album wondering where the time went since the last one.
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