Review Summary: Shinedown's breakthrough album is a step in the right direction.
When Shinedown released their first album, Leave A Whisper, they achieved mild success with the single, "45." They had gained a cult following that continued to grow by the time they released their second album, Us and Them. Their third album, The Sound of Madness, changed everything for the hard rock quartet from Jacksonville, Florida. This album is considered their breakthrough, four out of the five singles having reached the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.
This band had some hardships between Us and Them and The Sound of Madness. Guitarist Jasin Todd and bassist Brad Stewart had both left the band for reasons that went unexplained. They were quickly replaced by Zach Myers and Eric Bass, respectively. This left vocalist Brent Smith and drummer Barry Kerch to be the only original members left. However, it was difficult to figure out if this personnel change did anything to help the band, as The Sound of Madness was largely a Smith-driven album. The songs on this album left little room for the musicians to "show off" and a lot of the riffs and drum lines were either recycled or uninspired. This didn't seem to be a problem, though, because unlike the first two albums, Brent Smith had found his voice and his singing was more powerful than ever.
Even though Smith sang each note on the album with a passion and confidence that excelled any of his previous work, his vocals on "Breaking Inside" was more impressive than anything on the album. The song wasn't a ballad, but it was also dissimilar from some of the hard rock songs Shinedown had been accustomed to playing. Smith sang the song so you could hear emotion dripping from every syllable. Though there were times when the song was a little too reminiscent of earlier Nickelback, Smith's unique, powerful voice made the song a more recommendable song on the album.
A couple of the strongest tracks on The Sound of Madness were "What A Shame" and "Sin With A Grin." The former is a somber tale of a misunderstood man who took his struggle to his grave. The latter is a track so angry and so fast, it borders upon being a heavy metal song. There are other heavier tracks on the album, such as "Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide" and "Cry For Help," but they don't come close to matching that one. "Sin With A Grin" is the only song on which I can actually commend a musician's work. Zach Myers' performance on the guitar was exceptional and proved that he had potential in this band.
With every album, there are bad traits. Unfortunately, some of the aspects of The Sound of Madness dragged the album down a lot. This album was the one that made it clear that Shinedown is a trend follower instead of a trend setter. In 2003, when the band released Leave A Whisper, the post grunge sound that they used was all too popular, but when that genre lost relevance, Shinedown fell into the arena rock sound that had made bands like Adelitas Way and Alter Bridge famous at the time. In some areas, it works out for them, but in others, the clichés are too glaring to ignore.
On top of the arena rock clichés that appeared everywhere, the album lost the variation that Us and Them had impressed me with. This album seems limited to motivational anthems for workout playlists and brokenhearted lamentations. In fact, "Sin With A Grin" and "Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide" may have been the only songs to escape that mold.
Closing the album was the piano ballad, "Call Me." This is where I will establish the rule that bands should never end their album with a ballad. Ending the album should have been another hard rock song with the caliber of songs like "Sin With A Grin," but leaving the piano ballad for the very end left me feeling a rock & roll shaped void. However, I should commend the song, as "Call Me" is definitely noteworthy on its own. Although, it is a piano ballad, it adds on a string arrangement and layered vocals to make a more impressive song.
The Sound of Madness is a good album and it's definitely worth the listen. Like Us and Them, it leaves the listener hopeful for the future. It is a strategy that one could only hope would be successful before it leads to a disappointment.
