Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Review: Shinedown "The Sound of Madness"


"The Sound of Madness" is the third swing from Shinedown and they have hit the ball out of the arena once again. I have been a fan since the debut record, but their latest has convinced me that they are poised to be one of my favorite bands for modern hard rock.

As on their previous releases, Shinedown stays true to their successful formula of stormy guitars swirling around an eye of the hurricane chorus. Nearly every song features a song-along-with-your-fist-in-the-air anthem chorus that is instantly memorable. Brent Smith is one of the greatest hard rock vocalists of our day. These guys deserve to be so much bigger than radio makes them out to be. "The Sounds of Madness" features a perfect mix of ripping rockers ("Devour", "Cry for Help"), midtempo cruisers ("Second Chance", "If You Only Knew"), and power ballads for this new millennium ("The Crow and The Butterfly", "What A Shame").

Shinedown will click with anyone who likes Saliva, Daughtry, or Nickelback.

iPOD-worthy: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10

Shinedown on MySpace. Official site.

Check out the video for "Devour":

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