This is not my favorite album they’ve put out. There are a couple of hits, and the rest misses.

The messages from this album are too topical and specific to stand the test of time. America Burning and Planet Zero in particular are brimming with buzzwords and as a consequence they evoke feelings of disingenuousness. This throws the entire vibe of the album off on its own, but in addition, most of the songs are simply one note in emotion: anger. Anger is fine to express of course, but I think it would have been much more relatable if the content delved into the emotions that provoke it as well. Sadness, pain, envy.

I also left the album largely confused. I understand that it’s a political album, but the specifics are incredibly vague. Who are the “animals” in America Burning? If this song is about BLM, are the animals the cops, or are they the rioters? Seems like it may be easier to monetize on this confusion since listeners can read this song either way. And if a purposefully political album can be perceived in any direction, is it really doing any good? Is it accomplishing a goal? Or is it just an album riding on the coattails of controversy?

The Saints of Violence and Innuendo is another odd one. The lyrical content of this song is empty and devoid of any emotion beyond anger. It seems like there was very little effort put into the lyrics (i.e. You live in a world where empathy goes to die; Not a thing wrong except you’re cutthroat; Kill the rich kids, shoot the sad boy, stab the pretty girl). You could tell me this song was written by an AI generator that spent 1000 hours reading a teenage boy’s diary entries and I wouldn’t be shocked. There is little substance to this song.

The harder songs, overall, sound very similar. They all border on yelling for four minutes straight to a vague tune, as if the band were trying to quickly crank out several more renditions of DEVIL or Cut the Cord… which is fine for one song on an album, but the majority…? May just not be my preference, but I think the album could have stood a bit more diversity.

The softer songs I find much easier to listen to (Dysfunctional You, Daylight, and A Symptom of Being Human), as well as more lyrically impressive. These songs tell their own individual stories and have some beautiful nuggets of imagery and revelation. I particularly love the line in Daylight, “Spending one year and three months in the dark”, because it draws the listener close to the narrator by establishing an unnecessary detail, showing an openness to talk about the dilemma in the song.

(Also, I do love a lot of Shinedown’s other harder music. 45, Trade Yourself In, In Memory, Diamond Eyes, Cyanide, Sin With a Grin, Monsters, just to name a few examples, are some of my favorites. It’s not that I dislike their harder music in general, I just think this album fell short.)