Album Review: Halestorm – “Into The Wild Life”

Release Date: April 10 2015
Label: Atlantic
Producer: Jay Joyce

Kitch's Rating: 9/10 

About a year ago, I visited a friend and we ended up watching the CMT Music Awards from Nashville. Yeah, the ZZ Top/Florida Georgia Line/Luke Bryan/Jason Derulo thing was cool, but the real show stopper was Eric Church, who sang his hard-driving single “That’s Damn Rock & Roll”.

Actually, the real showstopper was the woman who sang with Church on that song, Elizabeth ‘Lzzy’ Hale from the metal band Halestorm. This was a hell of a performance, stunning the people in attendance at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville – and everyone else on Twitter, for Lzzy Hale was trending worldwide very quickly – with it’s ferocity and it’s awesomeness.

Standing alongside the outlaw Church, and behind Church’s band, who play hard rock just as well as they play guitar-fuelled country, Hale wowed us in high heels, tight black leather pants, whilst playing a white and gold Gibson Lzzy Hale Signature Explorer guitar, and absolutely killing the vocals. Even Eric Church was looking at her in amazement every now and again.

I’ve been on the Halestorm bandwagon – Lzzy Hale with her brother Arejay (drums) with Joe Hottinger (lead guitar) and Josh Smith (bass) – ever since. I purchased all their albums and was wowed by their two EPs covering tracks such as Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ as you’ve never heard it before, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Gold Dust Woman’ and Heart’s ‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You’. The best cover of all was ‘Shoot to Thrill’ by AC/DC. Lzzy Hale singing AC/DC? Does it get any better than that?

2015 marks the release of Halestorm’s third studio album, Into the Wild Life, which is the much-anticipated follow up to the band’s hit The Strange Case Of… [which featured the Grammy Award-winning single ‘Love Bites (And So Do I)’] and despite fears that, because Halestorm had moved to Nashville and toured with Eric Church last year, the new release would be a country album, the familiar Halestorm sound is there.

Lzzy Hale has to be one of the best vocalists in rock music today, and her signature voice is the undisputed driving force behind what is a really terrific album, full of the same chunk riffs, heavy drums, searing solos and soon-to-be rock anthems that Halestorm fans new and old have come to expect. Rumours of their demise or shift to country music have been greatly exaggerated.

Mixed in with the heavy rock anthems – for example ‘Mayhem’ and ‘Apocalyptic’ (the first and second singles released) are both tracks that grab you by the scruff of the neck and don’t let go – are more introspective songs, like ‘Dear Daughter’, ‘The Reckoning’ and ‘What Sober Couldn’t Say’ and Hale’s voice is adept in both situations. Vocally, there’s little that Lzzy Hale can’t do. 

Actually, ‘Mayhem’ but be Hale’s personal anthem. ‘Apologetic’ might be another, come to think of it. She does things her way, and doesn’t seem to care what outsiders think. No wonder she got on so well with Eric Church!

My personal favourite, after a few listens, is ‘I Like It Heavy’ an ode to some of the great heavy rock bands and songs of the past, and to the band’s love of rock. It’s kinda like something KISS might’ve done back in the day, just with upgraded vocals. The riff-friendly song name-checks Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, amongst others and Hale likens going to a giant rock show to worshiping at a church, and that’s exactly how I feel! Lzzy Hale’s vocal performance is as good on this song as on any other.

I’ll be honest, there isn’t a bad song on this album, although some could have done with a little less production from Jay Joyce – some rough edges are good, from time to time, you know? – and, ultimately, that’s what sees this album fall short of a perfect ten in my book. Even so, it’s going to sell like hotcakes. I’ve listened to it three times already, and the run-time of 56:48 (if you have the deluxe version, with two extra tracks) races by.

Take it from me: Halestorm is the future of arena rock. It’s not to late to jump onto the bandwagon!