A pretty huge week with some massive new albums out, alongside some great smaller ones too. Let’s do this!

Benson Boone: American Heart

The pop-rock overnight sensation singer-songwriter exploded HUGE last year with ‘Beautiful Things’ being a massive TikTok hit, and he looks to follow on that success with his sophomore album just 14 months later. It has a very epic air to it, like a mixture of Marianas Trench, modern Panic!, and Jonas Brothers. And while it is rather light on the rock side of things, this is definitely no all-out pop record, it definitely has a bit more of an emphasis on the instrumentation and just a bit more alternative edge to it. And it’s… fine. I’m certainly not against music like this, and songs like ‘Mr Electric Blue’, the epic ballad ‘Momma Song’ and ‘Wanted Man’ are all great and big personal highlights. However, it’s somehow both too short and too long. It’s only 30-minutes, which is wild these days, especially in pop music. But, it does all sound pretty samey for that half an hour, aside for an exception or two. There is no refuting Benson’s incredible vocal talents, and the songs are all well written, but something about this didn’t quite click for me as being by one of the biggest artists around currently. It’s not bad at all, and will surely be a massive album this year, but for me I can’t give it much higher than 7.5/10. Still, that is hardly a bad score!

Alestorm: The Thunderfist Chronicles

We’ve already checked out this awesome album! Check it out here.

Brett Young: 2.0

So, anyone who read my review of Brett’s last album in 2023 knows I was NOT a fan. However, my tastes have changed over the last couple of years, so maybe (hopefully) I’ll enjoy the guy’s fifth album a little more!

Thankfully, I did! ‘Drink With You’ is a great song and a fantastic opener, a massive, catchy song. ‘That Ain’t Yours’ and ‘Say Less’ are also both awesome modern country-pop songs designed to play to huge stadium and festival crowds. Plus, the duets with the likes of Lady A and George Birge are awesome, both acts adding so much to Brett’s sound. However, the album does have a bit of a similar issue to the Benson Boone one for me. It’s short and sweet, but also kinda samey throughout. Brett has clearly found a style that works well for him and plays to it incredibly well, but it resulted in nothing on this standing out aside for the odd different vocalist and some that I’d say are higher quality than others. However, the album does close on let’s be honest, an upgraded version of his classic ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’, the piano, strings and Hannah McFarland’s beautiful vocals adding so much to the track.

The album certainly isn’t bad as a whole, and is certainly an improvement over his last, in my opinion. It’s a fine album to stick on and relax to, for sure. However, in a genre so saturated with incredible releases over this year alone so far, it sadly doesn’t stand out much. If you are into Brett or country, it’s still worth checking out though, especially due to its length! 7/10

Malevolence: Where Only the Truth is Spoken

GODDAMN. This was exactly the shot in the arm of pure anger I needed this morning. We loved 2022’s Malicious Intent, but if that was the band’s coming out party to the mainstream, this is the album that firmly roots them as one of the future titans of heavier metal. It once again feels like a style that only Malev can play in, the perfect blend of melodic, hardcore and thrash and is 42-minutes sheer awesomeness. It’s so hard to pick highlight tracks as it’s all SO GOOD and almost all of it ended up on my personal playlist. Whether it’s Hatebreed, Machine Head, Lamb of God or Parkway Drive, the band wear their inspirations on their sleeve and blend it together so well! It is packed full of some of the best riffing in years, and Alex’s and Josh’s vocals are somehow better than ever before, both screaming their hearts out! And heck, the production on this thing is really top notch, everything hitting hard and sounding massive. If you are a fan of the heavy stuff in anyway, you need to check this out immediately. There aren’t many bands out there as consistent as Malevolence, and even fewer that are getting better each time! 9/10

YUNGBLUD: Idols

Another massive name in the pop-rock sphere, the Brit is back with his fourth studio album. I have to say I’ve not really been a fan of him in the past. This album didn’t change my mind. It’s not bad, I suppose, but it feels like ‘Blud has tried to hop on the Benson Boone train, playing Queen-like, epic rock music, yet still doing it with an incredibly large lean into pop. Sure, the opener is seven minutes long and has a guitar solo, but it is by far the best track on the album. The rest feels like it draws in obviously elements of Blur, Oasis, Billy Idol and even Incubus, all of which have made big returns recently. Coincidence…? None of it feels fresh or genuine, all just cheep imitations of other songs and bands. I’m not asking for something groundbreaking either, I love the NWOCR scene for Christ sakes, just something that doesn’t feel quite so forced. The closest to another good track I felt was ‘Fire’, but some of the lyrics were questionable.

He very clearly has a massive fanbase so is clearly doing something right, and there will be plenty of love for this album, but not from me. He’s a good vocalist but his voice honestly grates on me a little too, and some of his lyrics are very cringy. If you’re a fan of the guy, you’ll probably enjoy this a lot, but it’s a no from me, dawg. It sadly gets a 4.5/10 from us… sorry. Please don’t come for me if you’re pissed at that!

Black Majesty: Oceans of Black

The Australian power metal band have been going for over two decades now, and are on album eight, continuing on their legacy with another fantastic release! It’s power metal at its most grandiose and epic and technical, sitting pretty perfectly somewhere between Hammerfall and Dragonforce. Songs like ‘Set Stone on Fire’, ‘Lucifer’ and the epic ‘Get a Hold On’ are certainly highlights, though the whole album is pretty damn solid. If you like power metal, you’re bound to like this! However, it does feel just a touch generic these days, as it’s another genre with so much awesome stuff coming out of it these days. Still, the band are hugely talented and I had good fun listening to this! It’s a solid 7/10 from me, and I’ll definitely be listening to this again soon!

HAIM: I quit

The fourth studio album from the Californian female trio has been a long five year wait. Not for me, but probably for at least some of their fans. I am not one of those fans. ‘Gone’ is a pretty terrible choice for an album opener, and is a pale imitation of the songs it’s both sampling and inspired by. However, the rest of the album sadly isn’t much better. I know they’re a massively popular band and I really want to like them, but it seems like a disingenuous attempt at recreating late 90s country/folk-infused pop rock. Like Gilmore Girls/Dawsons Creek style music, if anyone gets what I’m talking about. Except they felt like a product of their time, while this feels more like a dull, rehashed cash-grab. Interesting that so many of the same feeling albums came out in the same week, I have to say! I listened to the full nearly-hour of this thing in one sitting and have no desire to go back and revisit any of it again. As I said, the band are massive so there are going to be plenty who are big into this album, but I found it incredibly dull, and just about passable as background music. The trio are talented vocalists, but the music behind it is damn boring. 3/10

P.S. It also annoys me that only the first word of each song title is capitalised, each other word isn’t, but that’s just a me thing I imagine.

Lukas Nelson: American Romance

One of Willie’s eight children, and the first solo release away from his Promise of the Real band, Lukas has a bit to prove with this release. It’s a good thing, then, that this is a damn solid neo-traditional country release! Honestly, the more I listened through it, the more I enjoyed it, too! From pure old-school country stuff like ‘Pretty Much’ and ‘Outsmarted’ to more folk/Americana stuff like ‘Make You Happy’ to almost blues rock hints in ‘The Lie’, there is plenty of variety and intrigue throughout. We also get two incredible duet tracks with Stephen Wilson Jr and Sierra Ferrell, both of which are also big highlights on an album packed full of them! It’s not a release for everyone, but I loved it! It’s 43-minutes of chilled-out, emotion-filled country-Americana music, and if anyone is into this style I cannot recommend it enough! His solo work has definitely started off strong, and I already can’t wait to hear where he goes from here. It’s a very solid 8/10 from us!

The Cheats: Old Rats on a New Ship

The Pittsburgh modern punk legends are back with their first album in a couple of years. I wasn’t too familiar with the band outside of a song or two I’d been sent, but I really loved this album! It’s fast paced, fun, pretty heavy and short and sweet, straight to the point! It’s 80s/90s punk at its very best, but with some awesome production to boot. Tracks like the opener, the hilarious ‘Only Thing I’m Fucking is Up’ and ‘Stuck on You’ are all personal highlights, but there really isn’t a bad song on the album! If you’re a fan of anything from Rancid to Pennywise to even older stuff like Anti Nowhere League or more out there stuff like Wildhearts, I truly can’t recommend this album enough. And, at sub-30-minutes, it’s an incredibly easy listen. It’s just a good fun album, and something we don’t get nearly enough of these days! I can’t give it any less than 8.5/10, and the band have a big new fan in me! I’m immediately going back to listen to some of their older stuff.

Letters to Burn: Shadows

This is a pretty fantastic metalcore debut sadly let down just a little by its production. All of the components are there; awesome riffing and drumming, catchy, melodic clean vocals and some great, occasional screams. It reminds me a lot of stuff like Painside and other nu-metal and melodeath combined bands of a similar sort of time. And there are plenty of awesome tracks on here too, from the opener to ‘The Key’ to the Rox Capriotti-featuring ‘Out of the Shadows’. However, the tracks don’t pack quite as big of a punch as I feel they could with a massive production behind it. Still, as a debut album, this is excellent, and I’d love to see it all live! The band are clearly talented and have a big future ahead of them, so if you are into metalcore or melodic metal at all, give this a try, I’m sure you’ll love it like I do! A solid 7.5/10 from us.

Badflower: No Place Like Home

I completely forgot we checked out this bands last album on one of the first iterations of this series back in 2021 until I saw the artwork. It feels like it must have been a long four years for them, as I haven’t heard the bands name since doing that review. It doesn’t quite stand out to me as much as the previous album did, either. I like the sinister feel and plodding nature of the opening track, the big riffs adding a lot to that. Stuff like ‘Snuff’, the punky ‘Swinging Hammer’ and to my surprise the likes of ‘Don’t Me a Stranger’ and ‘Paws’ were all big highlights for me. Yeah okay, this album is growing on me. It combines a lot of different styles under its alt-rock umbrella, and is constantly interesting for its 50-minute runtime. And it has certainly stuck with me more than their last release, me listening to this multiple times over the weekend. The band are insanely talented songwriters, and the arrangement of this album is fantastic. If you’re into the quirkier side of radio rock, this is certainly the album for you! I’ll be listening to this more in the coming weeks and months I’m sure, and I finally understand this band now! A very easy 9/10!

The Damn Shames: Trailers on Bricks

We checked this album out off the recomndation of our good friend Kyle Daniel, and I’m so glad we did! This is a fantastic Southern rock/country album very much along the same Vein as Kyle or the likes of Blackberry Smoke or A Thousand Horses. It’s packed full of amazing riffs and huge, uplifting, catchy choruses just made to be played to huge festivals. It’s also almost impossible to pick highlights as it’s all SO GOOD. From ‘Who Killed Rock n’ Roll’ to ‘Another Spoke in the Wheel’ to ‘Quittin’ Time’ and everything in between, there is plenty to love and relate to. It’s the perfect album for the summer, being upbeat and chilled out and having just enough pop hooks in the country to ensure it could be absolutely massive. If you are at all into any of the genres I mentioned, check this out immediately. The band have a big new fan in me, and it’s a very easy 8.5/10!