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Well the albums out tonight. I honestly really dislike it. Much too pop sounding for me. There a couple good ones in there (I want to live) but most of the songs are rather boring and not my style.

Wow.....what a mixed bag. The 4 songs they officially released before the album came out were pretty much the best of the bunch. Everything else was really, REALLY underwhelming. Except for the final track, The Resistance. Funny that the best part of the album was a 30 second jam session at the end of the album. Overall, very disappointed.

RANKINGS:
1. The Resistance
2. I Want to Live (Very much like Awake and Alive)

3. Feel Invincible
4. Stars

5. Back From The Dead


6. Watching For Comets



??????
7. Burn it Down
8. Out of Hell

9. Undefeated (poor Monster knock-off)
10. Saviors of The World

11. Lions




12. Famous


I'm gonna go listen to Rise now

Welp. Finished the album. AHart is right. This is kinda a mixed bag indeed. The first album starts of good not great. Then after I Want To Live, it started veering into sounding like something that I do not like to hear from Active Rock bands. A few days back, I made a comment about how I feel like I got to make my opinions heard when I hear someone deride modern Alternative Metal/Post-Grunge bands and how much I enjoy how bands like Breaking Benjamin, Sick Puppies, etc. sound in their latest albums. Then I hear Unleashed and I got to this unenjoyable feeling I had when I listened to Shinedown's Threat To Survival and it made m realize, "Hmmm. Maybe people are right regarding Active Rock, Alternative Metal bands." There are some bright moments in Unleashed, but I don't know.

Interesting enough, I stated in the Shinedown thread how I compared that feeling to how I felt when I heard Switchfoot's Fading West album, where I just did not enjoy it since it felt too poppy for me to enjoy and it did not feel genuine enough to me. I feel the same here for Unleashed. Interesting enough again, when I heard Switchfoot's latest album, When The Light Shines Through, I enjoyed it a good amount and it sounded more genuine than what Skillet and Shinedown released. Heck, I liked Rise (and it certainly had its flaws) better than Unleashed, despite some claims that Skillet did not really enjoy making that album due to Howard Benson's production style.

I guess time will tell if maybe Unleashed will be more enjoyable to me on future listens, but I'm giving this a thumbs down sadly for now.

Which songs did you enjoy, Kev?

Let's see here. I liked Stars, I Want To Live, Out of Hell, Watching For Comets, and The Resistance. Lions is all right, as well.

I Want To Live
The Resistance's 40 seconds jam session
Out of Hell
Watching For Comets
The Resistance.
Stars
Back From The Dead
Undefeated
Burn It Down
Famous
Lions
Saviors Of The World
Feel Invincible

I Want To Live and Stars are the standouts. I liked The Resistance too. I'll agree it's a mixed bag for the most part. It might grow on me, but a lot of the songs felt like they could've been b-sides on previous albums.

Gotta agree with the general consensus here. An underwhelming album

I have to agree with you guys to a certain extent. At first, I thought the songs released early were the best offerings they had. When I listened to the album the first time, I wasn't in love with it. After a few cycles through, it's grown on me. No, it doesn't have enough strings like their previous few albums. They've returned to their origins in some parts of it. "Out of Hell" has some good sound to it. Has a little FFDP vibe. The others were good. Will it stay in my rotation? Yeah. Is it their best ever? Probably not. Could they have done better? Certainly. I know John Cooper said he wanted an album everybody could connect to so some fans probably won't enjoy it as much as a casual listener.

Yeah, so The Resistance is BY FAR the best song off this album. Not even a question for me

I'd still give the edge to I Want To Live (but probably because I'm a junkie for the strings).

After a few listens I can say that I actually really enjoy this album. It's certainly not as good as their high points of Collide or Comatose, but most of the songs are pretty solid. The only songs I don't really like at all are Lions and Watching For Comets (or maybe it was Saviors Of The World, I don't have all the song titles memorized or associated to specific songs yet), which basically feel like "Skillet writes a song for K-Love" to me. While I didn't initially like Stars when they first released it, it has grown on me a ton. Stand out songs for me are I Want to Live, Out of Hell, and The Resistance. I definitely enjoy this album a lot more than Rise.

Anyone checked out the first song from Jen's new solo band yet? I kind of get a Lacey Sturm vibe from this one, and I like that.

Andy92 wrote:Anyone checked out the first song from Jen's new solo band yet? I kind of get a Lacey Sturm vibe from this one, and I like that.

Funny thing you said that. According this interview with Loudwire.

While the EP definitely does rock, there are other elements to your sound. What inspires you in terms of music that you like and how much might we hear some of those influences on this EP?

I feel like I’m such a weird blend of so many things and I think people will pick up on it. Obviously, I’ve been touring in a mainstream rock band for ten years, so I’ve got a ton of influence there from just the people we’ve played with. I grew up listening to Papa Roach, and I used to love Jimmy Eat World and the more slightly emotional rock type of stuff. But when I was 16-years-old, I remember hearing the album Flyleaf and thinking, “Oh my god, I want to be her [Lacey Sturm]” (laughs).

http://loudwire.com/ledger-not-dead-yet ... interview/

I like the track. I'll be sure to listen to the EP.

Andy92 wrote:Anyone checked out the first song from Jen's new solo band yet? I kind of get a Lacey Sturm vibe from this one, and I like that.

I love the song, its really catchy and I thought the same thing (The Lacey Sturm vibe). Jen is a talented musician and singer so I am pretty excited for the EP!

She sounds just like her lol Her and Korey are really good friends with Lacey btw.

This song is amazing.

Awww, snaps. Skillet and Sevendust co-headline tour and the LA show is at the Wiltern. September 1st. My September is already too busy and got three shows including the AB listening party. I might as well add one more.

I’m a little surprised it is in The Wiltern. I would think either bands can fill Wiltern (around 1,800 people capacity) by themselves. AB has played Wiltern by themselves in the last two tours and they probably will be there for their next LA show whenever that may be. I would think this bill can fill Hollywood Palladium (3,500 people) or maybe Microsoft theater (5,000+). It baffles the brain. Best to get tickets on the first day of pre-sales somehow. Here's the dates in the link below. I don't think they are playing in West Virginia, Andy. Sorry mate.

https://loudwire.com/skillet-sevendust- ... r-the-day/

All right, did some digging around Twitter/Facebook to get a code, but I got the tickets for the LA show at the Wiltern. Only $50.00 for GA. I could have paid another $14.00 to get pit tickets, but it's on a Sunday, I probably should get there way earlier to get front of the GA section. It's the same section format like in the Switchfoot show (one GA section and one pit) and I was in the third row GA for that show and got a great view, so I should have better luck for the Skillet/Sevendust show. I'm hoping both bands get more than an hour each and I can get great value for the ticket. Plus, I'm probably thinking Pop Evil should have some decent songs that I am overlooking and have yet to hear Devour the Day and they are bound to have good stuff as well.

Overall, I think I'm going to be pretty pleased with the purchase and naturally very pumped to see both Sevendust and Skillet in the same show as headliners.

Busy month of September for me. Skillet/Sevendust at the start of the month. Iron Maiden, somewhere in mid-September. Breaking Benjamin/Three Days Grace/Chevelle two days after that. Plus, the Alter Bridge listening party and as long as it is not on the same weekend as Iron Maiden, I should be good to go where I don't need to cancel anything. Unless, I be a really mad man and if the AB listening party is on a Friday, the weekend of Iron Maiden, that I bolt to the airport immediately after the listening party, fly back to SoCal to Saturday morning and head to the Iron Maiden show on that same day.