Hollywood Undead - Day of the Dead (2015)

Shouldn't it actually be "Day of the Undead"?

This album finds Hollywood Undead continuing the trend they started on "Notes From the Underground" with the whole "let's think outside of our box", and as you might remember, I wasn't a big fan of a lot of their forays into new sounds on that album, particularly disliking "Another Way Out", but it feels like these guys must've loved the fucking SHIT out of that track because most of these songs are electronic-influenced pop songs! There are points on this album where they don't even sound like a band anymore, just a popstar (Daniel Murillo) with a few featured rappers on his songs, and the occasional electric guitar, but that's typically buried in the mix a bit. That being said, the rappers are better at doing that rippity-rap stuff than ever before, with more multis in the verses, faster rapping, more interesting flows, etc, particularly notable with Johnny 3 Tears because he manages to capture the aggressive nature of his rapping on "Swan Songs" at times, such as in the opening track "Usual Suspects", which is a shitty intro track because it's pretty rock-influenced and then it leads you into an album that sounds like Dr. Luke and Max Martin had a hand in the songwriting and production.

Something pretty interesting about this album is that the songs are much more surprising with the way that they're arranged this time around: There've been many times I wasn't sure who was gonna appear on what track, and was surprised when, for example, Johnny 3 Tears would appear on a party song, Charlie Scene would sing the chorus on a track, or even that Daniel Murillo would get a semi-rap verse ("Guzzle, Guzzle"), so it's almost like they broke down some pillars when it came to their own typical song structure, especially given that Charlie Scene sings (to my knowledge) just as many choruses that Daniel Murillo does, this time around. Hell, there are even some songs without Daniel Murillo on them at all! Interesting stuff from the guys in the band, if you ask me, and you didn't, but I was saying "if you ask me", keyword being "if", so be sure to meet me at a party and ask me, and I promise I will say "Interesting stuff from the guys in the band."

There's still some typical songs here that you'd come to expect from Hollywood Undead, like "How We Roll" which has every member (aside from maybe Da Kurlzz? I'm not sure, I can't hear him in the background or anything) on it vocally, with the rappers switching off in the verses, complete with an awkward rape lyric from Johnny 3 Tears ("Our victim forced into a sixsome, and ain't nobody leaving 'til all of our dicks cum") who you might remember as arguably the most emotional and "deep" member of the entire band lyrically. Ah well, Daniel Murillo's line of "WE HOLDIN' HEAT 'CAUSE IT'S COLD OUT HERE" is mildly fire. "Dark Places" is also pretty good and one of the more hip-hop centric songs on the entire album, showing off that the guys are still pretty cool dudes, with my favorite line being delivered by Charlie Scene, "That guy's cockier than shit, like a guy with six cocks, and I can't stop saying dick! Dick, dick and then cock, hick-a-dickery-dick-a-dick-a-dickery-dock!" so that's something that's on an album that has been pressed to CD and even vinyl.

Unfortunately, they actually tend to try to copy artists on this album a little bit: Just TRY telling me that "Disease" isn't Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" down to the drum and guitar rhythm. It's almost despicable how much of a copy it is, because even when people got onto Kanye West's ass for "Black Skinhead" it didn't sound as much like Marilyn Manson's song as this one does. Also of note is that "Does Everyone in the World Have to Die?" has the fucking stupidest title of any song in the entire Goddamn discography, and almost sounds like they're trying to copy Death Grips with the industrial/electronic-heavy instrumental and J-Dog's scream-rapping over it. It's actually pretty fucking disappointing how far these guys have fallen since "Swan Songs" in that regard. I mean, come on, listen to "War Child" and tell me that, aside from the good beat in the background, this is a song that you wanted. How the fuck do you "party like a war child"?! This is possibly the fucking stupidest and straight-to-radio song in their entire discography!

There are plenty of songs on here that don't even sound like Hollywood Undead in the first place, like the calm "Take Me Home" and "Sing", the (admittedly pretty good) folky track "I'll Be There" in which they sound like they're trying to be Mumford and Sons, and "Party By Myself" which might as well be a LMFAO b-side, which, yeah, it's a little bit of fun, but you're shitting me if you think this song, or hell, a good portion of these songs are gonna age well. This sounds like an album that should've come out in 2011 during the huge pop-craze of Katy Perry, LMFAO, Lady Gaga, etc, along with the pop-rock craze of bands like Hot Chelle Rae and a thousand other bands that've been lost to the cruel and unforgiving sands of time, but was unfortunately released years too late to capture the flame that was in the mainstream for this type of music. I think it'd also be safe to say that "Guzzle, Guzzle" is the worst song in the band's entire studio discography, as they actually attempt to try a bit of a southern hip-hop vocal style with a simple annoying beat and not much of a chorus to speak of. I mean, I gotta give them props for even trying, but this is just bringing back memories of "The Whisper Song" by the Ying-Yang Twins.

I have to give respect where respect is due, because Hollywood Undead were never the most respected band, and the fact that they continue to experiment is pretty cool, but it sounds like in their search for experimentation and showing the audience the variety to their work, they lost track of what attracts people to their band, what made their previous albums even semi-cohesive, and ultimately and unfortunately enough, who they are. The only real rock-influenced tracks are the title track and "Let Go", while the majority of the other songs sound like they're trying too hard to appeal to a very specific moment in time that will forever date this album as "an album from 2015", which might as well have actually been the title of the fucking album. People can say the band is better without Deuce, and while I agree that their material with Daniel Murillo can arguably be even better than their music with Deuce, I can't help but feel that Deuce would've never lead the band down this musical path to the point where it sounds like a popstar and their friends.

A fair bit of these songs, I admit, I wouldn't hurry to change the radio station if they came on while I was listening to it, but I'd have to shake my head and wonder just what the fuck happened to this band I used to love so much when I was younger, especially when they still know how to be that band (as shown by songs like "How We Roll" and "Let Go"), but for some reason chose not to. Why oh why?

6/10 ________________________________________________________
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