Mystery Weekend - Surprise! (2017)
Rody Walker of progressive metal Protest the Hero fame fronting a pop-punk band, how 'bout that? How's 'bout them beans?! Well, I'm gonna get right into it: If you can't imagine Rody Walker's vocals in a pop-punk band, there's a reason why: He's a great singer, I mean, he REALLY is, I'd love for him to serenade me with a ukelele down by the boardwalk, but there are so many moments on this album that feel a bit too vocally over-the-top because of how powerful and soaring his vocals are, which kinda makes me say to myself "Jeez man, dial it back a bit" but I guess without them, there wouldn't be a terrible lot to distinguish this band from all of the other pop-punk bands floating around in the ocean. However, the last tune, an acoustic one, "Super-Death", has the lyric "Love never dies a natural death, love dies of illness and wounds and weariness." and I think that's a great lyric, especially since a lot of the lyrics on this album abandon his more.. I don't wanna say "intellectual" lyrics because that's so fucking pretentious to say, but Rody Walker really wears his heart on his sleeve with the lyrics on here, often being very blunt about what he feels. I can occasionally hear a bit in a song that makes me think "this band has potential" but overall it just isn't really clicking with me as being something I'd want to hear more of.
6/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
