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All right, I tried. I went three songs into listening to the album in full before deciding, "Nope, not for me." Don't think I'm a guy that can sit back and listen to a fun "rock and roll" album in the state of life that I am in. If anyone likes that stuff, and there's plenty of people out there, more power to you. I gave it a try because of Myles, but nope. Nothing's grabbing me or finding a song to retain in my head from the early going to intrigue me. I guess wake me up when he gets back in his solo tour in November.

I'm basically just listening to the album for Myles' lyrics and vocals at this point 6 songs in right now (not including the pre-releases) and there's maybe 2 stand out tracks The One You Loved Is Gone and Lost Inside The Girl. LITG pretty much for the vocals more than the lyrics too

The Great Pretender was decent, too.

So after one listen my Top 3 are...

Lost Inside The Girl
The One You Loved Is Gone
The Great Pretender

If you thought the social commentary in 'Writing on the Wall' was a bit cheesy, then you'll enjoy 'Call of the Wild'

It's an aggravation
It's a mystery, so many find their solace in technology
An abomination, it's a new disease
Well the time has come to power down and breathe

Surprisingly great new album. It's leaning more towards classic rock at moments in stead of hard rock / metal like World on Fire did. Which I think they do a lot better. And luckily there are still a lot of clean / moody moments for Myles to shine.

Myles can do better than he did on this album, but given the amount of projects he's in, it's understandable that not every melody or lyric is fantastic. The band sounds incredible though. Slash in particular. Not a solo on this album that has no soul or feels boring. So many cool riffs as well. Such a phenomenal guitarist.

I'll do something like a review when I get the chance to listen to it some more.

Probably my least favourite album Myles has been involved with, unfortunately. I've given it a few listens in the hope it'll grow, but almost nothing stands out.

The solo in The One You Loved Is Gone is 100% Bon Jovi. Wonderful song though. Better than the song it references at the end, Battleground. Reminds me of their live rendition of Gotten.

Will say that I do love the Mindcrime references in Serve You Right. When I heard "Sweet/Suite Sister Mary" at the start I was really hoping it would be a keeper.

Timotheus wrote:The solo in The One You Loved Is Gone is 100% Bon Jovi. Wonderful song though. Better than the song it references at the end, Battleground. Reminds me of their live rendition of Gotten.

Btw, what is it with these references to older SMKC songs you can find on the album? They seem more uncreative than original to me.

Overall the album... is an album. Guess I've grown out of this type of hard rock. I like it more than Apocalyptic Love tho.

First listen all the way through: "My Antidote" is the weakest, IMO. I wasn't totally feeling "Lost Inside the Girl" on first listen, either. I'm a melody person first.

"The Call of the Wild" and "Serve You Right" are great tracks to start with.

"Serve You Right"...smooth, slow, groovy, sexy, dirty. I like. This might be my favorite track.

Only Myles could have a song with such pretty lyrics like "The One You Loved is Gone" and have the real emotion behind it be about a dog. lol

TurningStones wrote:The first few notes to the chorus of My Antidote, where Myles says "But it's all", is almost a note-for-note callback to Wicked Stone's chorus, where Myles says "I'm getting off".

I hear more, "But it's all I can do to carry on" from "Lover" at that part.

Dan Dando wrote:If you thought the social commentary in 'Writing on the Wall' was a bit cheesy, then you'll enjoy 'Call of the Wild'

Hey, I love "The Writing on the Wall!"

sugarandcyanide wrote:I hear more, "But it's all I can do to carry on" from "Lover" at that part.

I can hear that, now that you mention it. To me, it's halfway between the vocal phrashing of "Lover" and "Wicked Stone".

The Lyrics to call of the Wild actually annoy me. If you are going to write a song about how technology is killing the music business, don't record an album using electric guitars and mix it in Pro Tools, go do it in Gregorian chants recorded on papyrus.

I quite like The Great Pretender. There were a couple of riffs and melodies here and there that I thought were cool, but as a whole it just feels like it's been a rush job and there's nothing really new or interesting. I LOVED World on Fire, it felt like there was energy and there was something fresh about it, even though the kind of music is old school and a bit dated. This has none of that and it reminds me of albums by bands who aren't really relevant anymore and know it, barely putting their new material in the setlist. Guys like Ozzy and Alice Cooper. I actually felt a bit sad listening to it.

I also think Slash's guitar playing needs a certain level of punk to work. He's not the best Blues player and he's not a virtuoso shredder either, but his slight sloppyness and his thick, over distorted sound really works in that more raw environment. In this kind of album it's just not tight or clean enough. Throughout the whole thing I was just thinking how much I missed Velvet Revolver.

AngusWolfe wrote:The Lyrics to call of the Wild actually annoy me. If you are going to write a song about how technology is killing the music business, don't record an album using electric guitars and mix it in Pro Tools, go do it in Gregorian chants recorded on papyrus

Where did you get the idea that the song is specifically about how technology is killing the music business? Pretty sure it's more about humanity becoming smartphone zombies

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/slash- ... eam-album/

"It's probably one of my favorite riffs on the record. And the whole thing came together really nicely. The lyric revolves around the idea of burning out on this technology-obsessed world that we live in and coming to the realization that it's time to power down and get back to the essence of living. 'Call of the wild,' you know?"

Dan Dando wrote:

AngusWolfe wrote:The Lyrics to call of the Wild actually annoy me. If you are going to write a song about how technology is killing the music business, don't record an album using electric guitars and mix it in Pro Tools, go do it in Gregorian chants recorded on papyrus

Where did you get the idea that the song is specifically about how technology is killing the music business? Pretty sure it's more about humanity becoming smartphone zombies

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/slash- ... eam-album/

"It's probably one of my favorite riffs on the record. And the whole thing came together really nicely. The lyric revolves around the idea of burning out on this technology-obsessed world that we live in and coming to the realization that it's time to power down and get back to the essence of living. 'Call of the wild,' you know?"

I think the point still stands though, as the lyrics aren't really "That one specific piece of tech" it's aimed at technology in general. Also, how many riffs and song ideas on this album do you reckon were first recorded on a smartphone? With lyrics like "It's an abomination, a new disease" It's like, come on dude, have you got nothing more interesting to write about other than people texting during dinner? It's like a crap stand up routine.

AngusWolfe wrote:The Lyrics to call of the Wild actually annoy me. If you are going to write a song about how technology is killing the music business, don't record an album using electric guitars and mix it in Pro Tools, go do it in Gregorian chants recorded on papyrus.

I quite like The Great Pretender. There were a couple of riffs and melodies here and there that I thought were cool, but as a whole it just feels like it's been a rush job and there's nothing really new or interesting. I LOVED World on Fire, it felt like there was energy and there was something fresh about it, even though the kind of music is old school and a bit dated. This has none of that and it reminds me of albums by bands who aren't really relevant anymore and know it, barely putting their new material in the setlist. Guys like Ozzy and Alice Cooper. I actually felt a bit sad listening to it.

I also think Slash's guitar playing needs a certain level of punk to work. He's not the best Blues player and he's not a virtuoso shredder either, but his slight sloppyness and his thick, over distorted sound really works in that more raw environment. In this kind of album it's just not tight or clean enough. Throughout the whole thing I was just thinking how much I missed Velvet Revolver.

Were you at all bothered by Waters Rising? Same thing to me.

A first, I thought the album was very unremarkable, but it kinda grew on me after a few spins, and I can now say it's solid. I've just listened back to the previous two albums for the first time since their release, and boy haven't they aged well, so I'd say the new one is slightly better and more cohesive overall.
It still lacks a real standout track though, and Myles' dirty twang (for lack of a better description) really annoyed me, especially on the opening song. The way he sings sounds so unnatural for him, and I hope he'll never do anything like it on a future AB or solo release.

Kreuger wrote:

AngusWolfe wrote:The Lyrics to call of the Wild actually annoy me. If you are going to write a song about how technology is killing the music business, don't record an album using electric guitars and mix it in Pro Tools, go do it in Gregorian chants recorded on papyrus.

I quite like The Great Pretender. There were a couple of riffs and melodies here and there that I thought were cool, but as a whole it just feels like it's been a rush job and there's nothing really new or interesting. I LOVED World on Fire, it felt like there was energy and there was something fresh about it, even though the kind of music is old school and a bit dated. This has none of that and it reminds me of albums by bands who aren't really relevant anymore and know it, barely putting their new material in the setlist. Guys like Ozzy and Alice Cooper. I actually felt a bit sad listening to it.

I also think Slash's guitar playing needs a certain level of punk to work. He's not the best Blues player and he's not a virtuoso shredder either, but his slight sloppyness and his thick, over distorted sound really works in that more raw environment. In this kind of album it's just not tight or clean enough. Throughout the whole thing I was just thinking how much I missed Velvet Revolver.

Were you at all bothered by Waters Rising? Same thing to me.

I always thought Waters Rising was about climate change.

I liked the album personally. It’s not as good as World On Fire, still miles ahead of Apocalyptic Love (listening back to that album mostly just hurts me lol). Slash’s guitar playing is insanely good on this record from top to bottom. I know a lot of us listen to these records for Myles, but Slash really brings his A game on a lot of these songs. Myles does fine vocally, but this album doesn’t have the catchy melodies that World On Fire did.

Mr. Slash wrote:
Overall the album... is an album. Guess I've grown out of this type of hard rock. I like it more than Apocalyptic Love tho.

I gotta admit, I wrote this after listening to like one third of the album. Overall it's pretty good. The first few songs are kinda weak, but the album gets stronger with Lost Inside The Girl.

News of bonus tracks?

Is Lost Inside The Girl as dirty as it sounds?