The official Stone Sour thread v New Album - Hydrograd - June 30th

[wolfking]

It's a grower.  It's pretty long but nothing unusual when you look at AS.  I'm liking it and happy to listen to it but it's not making me want to spin it over and over again.

[PixelDream]

Sounds pretty uninspiring to me thus far. The sound alone is less fat and deep compared to the previous albums. I'm not hearing any winner chorus either.

[pogoowner]

I find the songs to be a bit too straightforward on this one, and they're not catchy enough to make up for it.

[Mladen]

I find it consistently good, with only several songs being truly excellent. When the fever broke, Fabuless, St. Marie and Taipei person/Allah tea are my favorites. As far as the rest goes, most have their share of catchy bits and good ideas, but overall they're not really as great. They're still pleasant to listen to, though.

[Adami]

I think, prior to this album, you could really see Stone Sour develop their sound and always felt a sense of passion and originality. It peaked with the House albums, which really felt like they had a lot to say musically.

This album just feels like they were told to go make an album and put this out to meet a contract obligation. I felt no sense of passion, originality or that energy that was so abundant before.

It's not a god awful album, it's just boring and lifeless. To me.

[pogoowner]

I think, prior to this album, you could really see Stone Sour develop their sound and always felt a sense of passion and originality. It peaked with the House albums, which really felt like they had a lot to say musically.

This album just feels like they were told to go make an album and put this out to meet a contract obligation. I felt no sense of passion, originality or that energy that was so abundant before.

It's not a god awful album, it's just boring and lifeless. To me.

I completely agree.

[ErHaO]

There are plenty of songs I love or like here, but I feel the album is too long for it's own good. It drags a bit at the midpoint to me. They should've kept some of the weaker tunes as either bonus songs or future b-sides or something. Still, I think it is a very solid album and probably prefer it to their debut and Audio Secrecy, which I also still enjoy.

I agree there is not a lot of development musically in comparison to their preceding body of work, but the band is excellent at this type of rock so I don't mind that too much. From the promotional material prior to the album, I wasn't going in expecting another House of Bones and Gold pt 1+2.

[Adami]

I wasn't going in expecting another House of Bones and Gold pt 1+2.

Nor was I. I was going in expecting energy, and passion.

Didn't feel either of them.