Music Influences A Person

No one has found any positive points in the study, but there is a whole list of negative ones. For sure, in the traffic flow, many drivers were met who were listening to music loudly and the car body was almost shaking with the sound vibrations. When driving in such conditions, the speed of physical and mental activity is reduced by 20%. This greatly increases the risk of an accident. In addition, it has been found that motorists who listen to loud music while driving violate traffic rules almost 2 times more often. And if you are just now looking for a stereo system in your car, then you will definitely find the best one to choose from. How to do it? Just follow the link tonybassogm.com here to find all the advantages and disadvantages of all popular models! Choose the best stereo system for your Jeep Wrangler and check out the review first!

It Is No Secret That Music Influences A Person

Accordingly, the manner of driving depends on it. Many people seriously think about what kind of audio accompaniment to put in the background. To begin with, it is worth noting that any melody distracts the attention of the driver. In an ideal scenario, it is better to remove all distractions and concentrate on the road. When you do not want to drive in complete silence, you can put a neutral melody. If you have a passionate temperament, quickly lose control of his temper, and can not in time to cope with emotions, while driving it is better to include calm music. If you have a calm temperament, you can include audio to your liking.

There Are Some Drivers Who Can Dance Right Behind the Wheel to Club Music

Dangerous to listen to while driving is rock and all its varieties. Such music distracts you from the road and does not allow you to concentrate. If you listen to rhythmic audio, which is usually put in clubs, you may notice an increase in reaction rate. But there is also a negative side – some movements under such music become abrupt and in most cases thoughtless. In some people, it can provoke an attack of nervousness and even aggression. In addition, there are such drivers, who under the club music can dance directly behind the wheel. Everything would be fine if it was not a violation of traffic rules and did not lead to serious accidents on the road.

While Driving, The Most Important Thing to Remember Is That Any Mistake Can Cost Lives – Not Just Yours, But Other People’s as Well

Many modern motorists on long trips listen to podcasts. These can be travel stories or topics in foreign languages. This solution allows you to learn new information directly on the road. However, the negative side here is also present – the attention is distracted by the information which comes from the speaker. While driving, it is important to remember that any mistake can cost lives – not only yours but also other people’s lives. If while listening to music you feel a surge of energy or aggression, you should stop, relax and then only continue driving, and it is better to abandon the audio.

But there is another aspect of the problem. Probably many have seen accidents in tunnels. And it’s not about an unknown force. One of the reasons for such accidents was and remains the radio. Why? Here’s why: entering the tunnel, the radio signal disappears, but the rumble of noise increases and the driver does not want to hear the noise and begins to be distracted by the radio, choose a CD, put it, choose a good song. And then someone in front of you slows down, and the driver is looking not at the road, but at the radio’s display. And here you have an emergency situation.

So we all need to think about what we listen to and at what volume when driving a car. After all, loud and aggressive music affects not only the safety of all traffic but also on health. After all, we all know that loud noise has a negative impact on the human central nervous system. And if you still have questions, of course, you can ask them on the forum. Here you will get all the answers to your questions from experts and car lovers. Moreover, you can also share your experiences in the forum.

Driver’s Health

Let’s start with the fact that listening to music turned up to full power can have a detrimental effect on human health. Exceeding a certain volume threshold can damage the ear membranes, which may lead to irreversible loss of hearing – there comes deafness.

Other organs are not so good from infinite “clever-clever” too. Mental disorders and irritability may occur. According to statistics, because of the loud noise occurs 70% of severe neurosis. Loud music is one of the reasons why people become more aggressive. A person begins to behave inappropriately with others. And this can end badly. From the loud music can appear ringing in the ears, headaches. It is proved that when the sound power is above 70 dB, there are more errors in operation than in normal conditions. That is the driver, especially the beginner can lose concentration, which will lead to the accident. But there is no penalty for listening to loud music in the car while driving. It is true, the “screaming” car with a great likelihood will attract the attention of traffic police officers. They can stop you to make sure the driver is not in a state of alcohol or drug intoxication.

If you turn up the music in your car at full volume at night in a quiet yard, the punishment is likely to be popular. In addition to a possible lynching, residents can also call the police, whose officers will ask to see documents and begin to sort things out.

Bottom Line

Listening to music while driving is an obligatory ritual for many drivers. However, different music can have different effects on a person’s psychological state.

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The Influence of Art on the Person

It is difficult and almost impossible to overestimate the influence of art on a person. It motivates, creates a moral basis of moral values, instills the ability to create and admire beauty. Quite a lot of people admire art, but it is very difficult to become a true connoisseur. Becoming a connoisseur means learning to distinguish the original from cheap imitations and copies, to see the importance even in what to others may seem mediocre and primitive.

Even harder than appreciating art is naturally creating it. The process of creating true works of art can take months, years, decades. There are many brilliant artists who painted for several years, adding new details day after day, many writers who created images of their characters, reinforcing them with more and more thoughts.

Any educated person should know at least a little about art. It is best to inculcate a love of art from childhood: to go with the child to museums, to exhibitions of paintings, to show the cultural places of the city. This will have a positive effect and over time the child will grow up to be a knowledgeable person who understands the cultural traditions of his past and present, a person capable of creating worthy art for future generations.

The Beauty of Art

Art, truly amazing, is capable of influencing a person’s spiritual world and conveying unimaginable emotions that they may have never experienced in their lives. Also, art is a tool of many figures, which serves to convey the author’s main idea, conveying some values to a person and instilling them with beauty. How art affects a person’s life is quite a complex and important question.

Art is essential to a person’s life and good emotional state. Art has the ability to affect certain feelings of a person. For example, you can take music, it often happened that after listening to a certain tune, there is a very strong emotional awakening, which can motivate a person, give him a rush of joy or sadness. Music, like any other art form, needs to be appreciated and felt.

A Person’s Inner World

Art is the most beautiful thing in a person’s life, and that is why it can have a significant impact on a person and change their inner world. Art is something that every person should be accustomed to. After all, without art, the world of those vivid emotions that can cause sadness or euphoria is closed to a person.

Music as Art

Any kind of art is the ultimate reward for the efforts one has made to participate in it, either by being the creator of a masterpiece or simply by admiring from the sidelines its results. Musical compositions, enigmatic paintings, elegant sculptures emerged thanks to the knowledge of man, a natural gift, or the desire to achieve such perfection. In the process of creating any masterpiece of art, a person applies his talent, showing his capabilities to the fullest extent. Art develops, does not allow to remain in one place, in a state of inactivity. Through it, people improve. Those who in any way belong to this sphere are creative people in constant search. By immersing themselves in this world, they actively develop spiritually.

Thus, through manifested imagination, determination, imagination, patience, art helps in establishing a life position, affects a person’s worldview, helps to find oneself, to form one’s own way of thinking.

A Long Time Ago

Since ancient times and up to the present time man has been closely connected with art. The first art was born in primitive times in the form of rock paintings. Later, writing came into existence. People moved from the oral to the written arts. The role of art and music in human life can not fail to assess positively. Throughout life, a person gets the necessary knowledge and skills. Culture and art help people better understand the past and delve into the history of their own or other people. Even during the Great Patriotic War, people were engaged in creativity. At the fronts, there were groups of amateur art. The war period deserved even a separate direction in the art of those years.

Painting, culture, architecture, music, and poetry help people to open up. Understand their tastes and preferences. Capture thoughts and let the imagination run wild. Most creative people will say that it was a previous experience of talent that led them into the arts.

The Impact of Music on The Person

Literature develops memory and perseverance, music has a positive effect on the nervous system, architecture encourages people to travel. Everywhere around art in the form of one or another of its manifestations. Even the clothes that we wear a person – the creation of fashion designers. We drink from cups molded from the sketch, walk through parks and alleys invented by architects. All this is also a kind of art, even though it seems to be just a part of life.

Art is creativity in the narrow sense of the word. However, not all creativity can be recognized as mass art. Crafts, molding, embroidery, mosaic – a person is unlimited in creativity. But not all of these types of creativity will become great art. But even a little creativity benefits a person.

Art is the moment of creating a masterpiece: a massive one, or a small craft. It is the moment of revealing the soul for the sake of creating a thing that will attract the consciousness of others. A universal good that has a beneficial effect on the human psyche. It is not for nothing that doctors advise embroidery, or drawing, to calm the nerves. The enlightenment of the human mind and increased efficiency often come with art.

Bottom Line

As a result, if you compare a person who is regularly interested in art, even if not creating something himself, and a person who is completely indifferent to it, you will notice their differences. The differences will be in speech, upbringing, behavior, and sense of humor. A person with a penchant for art is more intellectually developed. Art creates a special way of thinking, creativity that can be used in solving everyday problems as well.

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 We’ve decided to share a selection of rock concerts on YouTube that are great for a Friday or Saturday home party. Now you can gather in a friendly company via Skype, Discord, Zoom, or any other video linking platform, turn on a video and enjoy the conversation to the music that all participants like. All the concerts we selected are of excellent quality, so you are guaranteed to enjoy hours of amazing music and a true vibe of good old rock. Moreover, if you utilize a reliable YouTube to mp4 converter, you will be able to enjoy concerts with the help of a device you choose and even with no Internet connection! Gather your friends, choose a concert – and let’s start the party! 

The National, High Violet From Brooklyn Academy of Music 2010 

We will start the selection with the recent broadcast of the presentation of the album High Violet from the lyricists of The National. The album itself is very good; it’s not about nostalgia – the concert is worth it.

Nirvana, Live at Reading 1992 

Unfortunately, this iconic concert by Nirvana is not available for full viewing. The first half-hour of the show, posted on YouTube, makes it very clear what Nirvana’s live performances are: Cobain’s hysterical voice, Dancing Tony’s shaky voice (a simple guy whom the band met on tour and called him to jump on stage because he was high). There is also a huge crowd listening to the songs passionately: you will definitely feel like you are there.

Alice In Chains, MTV Unplugged 1996 

In order not to go far from grunge – here’s another great concert of the most professional and sad grunge artists from Alice in Chains. Their most successful albums of the 90s after the breakthrough first were semi-acoustic, so it is logical to get acquainted with the concert in the acoustic MTV Unplugged format.

Live Aid 1985 

Live Aid is a series of charity concerts by rock stars supporting hunger victims in Ethiopia. The selection includes several performances from this festival at once – let’s start with a twenty-minute “golden” performance by Queen, which was recognized as the best. For the rest, you need to go to the playlist, where you will find U2, Status Quo, BB King, Sting, Duran Duran, Mick Jagger, and many other stars of the mid-80s.

Arcade Fire, Live from Madison Square Garden 2010 

Live from Madison Square Garden is a big one-and-a-half-hour cool concert, fully posted on the official Arcade Fire channel. If suddenly the work of this group, which are the last global indie rock stars, passed you by (well, or only flew from the soundtracks to TV shows), then this performance will put everything in its place.

Guns N ‘Roses, Tokyo – 1992 

Tokyo at some point became a place of power for all rock bands. Japanese versions of albums always contained exciting bonus tracks, and concerts from Tokyo were recorded and released impressively. Guns N ‘Roses were no exception – at their concert, you can see a 7-minute drummer solo, an almost 10-minute solo by guitarist Slash, and Knocking On The Heaven Doors. You can see everything for which one can love this group.

David Bowie, Glass Spider Tour 87 

No matter how close you are to David Bowie, we recommend watching this concert. At least listen to a couple of songs from the very beginning. The fact is that he elevated art and stage performances to the high level – great pop singers like Rihanna became his successors in this matter. All in all, this is a chance to see the top show for free.

As you can see, modern technologies make it possible to enjoy your favorite musicians and their concerts at any time in any place.

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Surely there will be those who won’t reproach me for saying that an article about Laura Pergolizzi is not the most appropriate topic for a rock music website. After all, she doesn’t fit the generally accepted definition of “rock personality” at all, because if you believe Wikipedia’s genre definition, LP (Laura Pergolizzi for short) is pop, pop rock and indie pop (a more melodic and not as abrasive subgenre as indie rock). And some people consider her music to be outright pop.

But here I would venture to argue. All these genre definitions aren’t that important when there’s an emotional and semantic component: LP is a singer, worthy to be considered a real rocker.

Why? Yes, because the kind of emotion that LP’s music is imbued with, the chippy pop can’t carry! And I think you will agree that the rock is not only the sound, but equally the emotion that is carried through the lyrics and the singer’s voice.

Besides, LP started as a real rock’n’roll band – 250 concerts a year, endless traveling with the band through small towns in a shabby van and spending nights in cheap hotels (often all together in one room).

Then the producers tried to squeeze her songs into a format in order to reach as many listeners as possible. Luckily, they weren’t very good at it and today we have what we have – LP in her true form with the soulful creativity that got a lot of listeners hooked.

The beginning of the LP’s journey

Laura Pergolizzi, or rather her extraordinary image, at first sight is often confusing – it is not always clear whether you are looking at a man or a woman. LP owes such a striking appearance to her parents: her mother is Neapolitan and her father is half Sicilian, half Irish.

But when you hear her powerful, deep songs, it immediately becomes clear: Laura Pergolizzi is a woman from short jeans-boyfriends to the last curl (about orientation we will talk separately), though with a certain admixture of a punk girl.

Laura Pergolizzi’s biography begins in Huntington, New York, where she was born in the spring of 1981.

The next 15 years of her life are rather poorly covered in the media – the LP hardly talks about this period in numerous interviews. Except that she once mentioned that as a child she was terribly ashamed of her voice and preferred to sing while the lawnmower or vacuum cleaner was on so no one could hear her.

It was not until 1996 that events began to happen that radically changed the life of the singer-to-be.

After graduating from high school, Laura Pergolizzi moves to the capital of her native state. Here begins the LP biography as a singer-songwriter: she gathers her own band called Lionfish, with which she starts giving concerts, performing the repertoire of her own composition.

At the same time Laura Pergolizzi for the first time began to use a pseudonym – LP, although this nickname stuck to her in the school summer camp.

Her first successes, or still a long way to popularity.

In ’98 she was noticed by David Lowery of the band Cracker. He was so impressed by Laura’s voice that he invited her to participate in the recording of his band’s album. Later he also became the producer of the debut LP “Heart-Shaped Scar” (2001).

Laura Pergolizzi’s further biography was marked by the release of another album – in 2004 “Suburban Sprawl & Alcogol” (I recommend listening to the supporters of the opinion that LP is pop), which was the result of collaboration with Linda Perry from the band 4 Non Blondes.

Around the same time, Laura Pergolizzi received as a gift from a friend a cross earring that Madonna had given him during the filming of one of her videos. Laura Pergolizzi has not parted with it for a single day since. At the same time she claims that this cross does not have any religious meaning – it is just her favorite earring.

Laura Pergolizzi’s first albums did not bring her fame, despite the fairly warm reception from music critics and a major tour to support Suburban Sprawl & Alcogol. There was still a long way to go.

A period of grounding in the music scene

2010 was the beginning of a new era in LP’s biography – she moved to Los Angeles. It is in this city that Laura Pergolizzi’s active musical activity begins.

In November she writes the song “Cheers (Drink to That)” together with Rihanna. Later she collaborates with Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys, The Veronicas and Cher.

But LP has always seen collaborations with pop stars as an additional option to her work. The best songs, with deep personal connotations, she always kept for herself.

In 2012, LP’s creative biography is marked by a breakthrough: music lovers finally appreciated the track “Into the Wild” released as a single, which will later be included in her 3rd album.

Laura Pergolizzi began to use artistic whistling in her songs after this song. In the studio, preparing to perform “Into the Wild,” the LP, out of habit, whistled the tune. The producer and director liked the sound so much that they decided to record it. Since then, almost no Laura Pergolizzi performance is without whistling.

In 2014, a full-length LP, Forever for Now, was released. Its release was preceded by two singles – “Night Like This” (March 2014) and “Someday” (June 2014).

The album “Forever for Now” was praised by music critics. Thus, the LP’s official Wikipedia page says that Stephen Thomas Irlevine in his review gave the record five stars. And American Songwriter’s magazine noted that LP songs can take the leading place in the prime time of any radio station.

Finally a well-deserved worldwide fame

This period in LP’s biography began with the release of their fourth album, Lost On You, in 2016.

The first single “Muddy Waters” from the then unrecorded LP “Lost On You” was released in September 2015, and the following summer it was played in the finale of one of the episodes of the popular series “Orange Is the New Black” (“Orange Is the New Black” – in the original).

But the album’s key track is Laura Pergolizzi’s song “Lost On You,” which gave it its title. She first performed it at the Coca Cola Summer Festival 2016 in Rome. As a result, the song reached the top of the charts of most European radio stations in record time.

And no wonder, because “Lost On You” is a deeply frank track about Laura Pergolizzi’s personal life. In it she literally portrayed her own love tragedy.

Laura Pergolizzi’s song “Lost On You” is dedicated to the singer’s close friend Tamzin Brown, whose relationship ended in failure. This fact takes on a special meaning when you learn that Laura Pergolizzi is a lesbian. The LP doesn’t hide that fact, though.

She claims that her parents have always been lenient about their daughter’s every “eccentricity”. True, Laura was fully aware of her sexual orientation and told everyone about it only after the death of her mother. Her father had only recently taken this seriously, because he had always preferred to think of her daughter’s confession as just a teenage hobby.

The literal translation of “Lost On You” sounds something like “Wasted on You” or “Lost in You”. True, in this form, the phrase taken out of context doesn’t carry the semantic load that it’s meant to carry.

But if we turn to the text of the song, it becomes clearer what meaning Laura Pergolizzi put into this phrase. The key vector of the song is the question addressed to Laura’s ex-girlfriend (played in the video by model Laura Hanson Sims): “…all those things I spent on you [time? nerves? feelings?], tell me – was it all for nothing?”.

It turns out that the point of “Lost On You” isn’t about trivial worries about lost love, but about trying to figure out if that relationship left any mark on the LP’s ex-girlfriend’s soul. Also, from the last frames of the video, in which Laura kisses her new girlfriend Lauren Ruth Ward, it is clear that life goes on for her, despite the still fresh image of her former lover in her mind.

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For those who are not fluent in English, just in case: when it comes to the title of the new Alice Cooper album, “Paranormal” can be translated as “Paranormal” or “Paranormal Phenomenon”.

The producer of the record is Bob Ezrin, who has been working with Cooper since the seventies and who recently helped the old guys from Deep Purple to record and release a worthy album – “inFinite”. The place of recording is Nashville – the city where many rockers have their creative epiphany (just remember Jack White and his projects The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, as well as the new Accept album The Rise of Chaos).

It is noteworthy that the second Alice Cooper digipack “Paranormal” Deluxe Edition contains two tracks (“Genuine American Girl” and “You And All Of Your Friends”) which Alice Cooper composed and recorded together with the three (still alive in 2017) members of the original band of the same name – Dennis Dunaway (bassist), Michael Bruce (rhythm guitar) and Neal Smith (drums). There are also six high-quality live recordings from the concert of Cooper’s current line-up, which took place in early May 2016 in the capital of the state of Ohio.

Another interesting point: guest rock stars – Billy Gibbons (ZZ TOP), Larry Mullen (U2) and Roger Glover (Deep Purple) participated in the recording of “Paranormal Apparition”.

A review of the contents of Alice Cooper’s new album “Paranormal”

Despite his age, Alice Cooper sounds as strong and energetic on “Paranormal” as he did half a century ago when he made his debut on the rock scene. Except that in the song that gave the release its name, he seems a little tired. “Paranormal”, on the other hand, boasts a selection of prog-metal notes, grandiose ominous riffs and dark vampire lyrics.

Case in point: my 4-year-old daughter asked me to put this song in her player so she “could fall asleep to it.” And the fact that her playlist before that had only included children’s songs is a real confirmation that Grandpa Alice is conquering even the very young hearts of today.

“Dead Flies”. A grotesque track in which Cooper skilfully jumps from cannibalism to privacy issues in the digital age. It’s all accompanied by bluesy “jams” in the best ZZ Top tradition.

The song “Fireball” is so atmospheric, that while listening to it you can easily imagine the apocalyptic fervor that Cooper is trying to bring us. In fact, it’s about a bad dream about the end of the world, waking up from which you see the same things in real life.

In “Paranoiac Personality,” Alice Cooper suggests that we all have something dark lurking in the back of our minds, that we are all following him, spreading false rumors and conspiring behind his back. He finally figured it out! (devilish laughter should sound here).

“Fallen In Love” is another great track with a classic blues-rock bent. Well, it looks like Billy Gibbons was invited to work on the new Alice Cooper album for a reason.

“Dynamite Road” (“Heroin Road”) is the highlight of the “Paranormal” album, in which Alice not so much sings as exercises the conversational genre with quality rhythmic hard rock, telling the story of a deadly encounter with the devil and attempts to fight him. And he does it, I’ll be honest, very well – A+.

It’s perfect for an active road trip of some kind. Also this track could be successfully used as an accompanying soundtrack for computer games. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear it in the next Need for Speed.

“Private Public Breakdown” is one of the most unsightly songs on Alice Cooper’s new album. It’s not that it’s bad, it just loses a lot against the background of the previous and following songs. Take a listen and you’ll see what I mean.

“Holy Water” is a totally unexpected, slightly dark vaudeville story whose rhythms make my feet want to dance (I was surprised to notice it somewhere in the middle of listening to the track, when I banged on the system unit under my desk beating the beat). Listening to it, you can just imagine ominously smiling, tap-dancing Cooper in his trademark cylinder hat, with a cane in his hands and accompanied by cabaret girls. For me, this song and “Dynamite Road” are favorites of Alice Cooper’s new album, Paranormal.

“Rats” is a very energetic, almost “teenage” classic rock ‘n’ roll. Not at all what you’d expect to hear from a 70-year-old rocker. Though perhaps this is another way for Alice Cooper to shock – what else is there to do when dark, ominous imagery doesn’t surprise anyone anymore?

“The Sound of A” is a peculiar way of paying homage to Pink Floyd. Those who are into it will understand. Perfect as the closing track of the “Paranormal” album (if you don’t count the bonus CD/plate).

“Genuine American Girl.” I’d call it “rock ‘n’ roll for girls” with a dash of doo-wop straight out of the ’50s. Although the “boys” might also like it for its rhythm and lightness. But that is if you don’t get into the gist of the song, which in fact is about a transsexual guy who is not afraid to tell the world about his peculiarities. Yeah, Cooper turns out to be a master of banter, too.

“You And All Of Your Friends” is a kind of message to all the elderly rockers who have decided to settle down because they have reached the age where they have to be serious.

As for the live recordings from the Deluxe Edition of Alice Cooper’s “Paranormal” album, I don’t see any point in reviewing them, because they are mostly updated versions of well-known hits.

There is still powder in Alice Cooper’s powders

There are no bad songs on the new Alice Cooper album “Paranormal”, and not even any “average” ones. I was just a little upset by the fact that the “paranormality” of this work is mostly expressed in genre experiments rather than in mysticism and trademark ominousness of the music and lyrics.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It’s just that because of the pre-released singles and the cover art featuring Cooper with two heads, it was expected to be a little different.

The way it came out wasn’t bad either, though. The album was just a little bit creepy and mostly, I don’t know, neat or something (it’s hard to find the right word).

In “Paranormal” the king of shock-rock does almost the impossible: offering a lot of “tasty” for the Alice Cooper fans of the 70’s, he continues to indulge in no less appetizing “tastes” for those fans who agreed to visit his recent “nightmares” (“Welcome 2 My Nightmare”). Not many rockers of the same “vintage” as Cooper can boast such a skillful fusion of past and present.

I would venture to say that Alice Cooper’s record “Paranormal” in 2017 can well claim the title of the best rock album of the year among the legends of the 70-80’s who do not want to retire. And the fact that instead of the expected shock-rock we got quite a lot of quality hard-, blues-, psychedelic-, glam- and prog-rock, as well as heavy metal and rock-n-roll with inclusions of dance and pop genres of the 50-70s, does not prevent it at all.

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The record owes its unusual title to an incident that happened to the band’s frontman Corey Taylor in a typical “stuck in time” old airport in an Eastern European country: trying to figure out where he needed to go to catch his plane, he was reading flight information on “old-school signs from the 80s.” Because the signs were constantly changing (Cyrillic and Latin versions in different languages), he mistakenly read one of them as “Hydrograd”, though it was actually some other word (Corey was not able to find out which one, because nothing like that appeared on the board again).

Subsequently, this word seemed “cool” to him and quite appropriate for titling the album. The cover, apparently, was created under the same impressions, given the predominance of red, the star. Particularly striking are the phrases “You Suck All the Way” and “Hello Gads” (I wish I knew to whom they were addressed – communism, the stalled Eastern European countries or someone more specific?).

Of the new Stone Sour album “Hydrograd”, Corey says, “It has everything you could ever want from a rock and roll album. It’s probably one of the things I’m most proud of in my life.”

And it seems to be for good reason – the reaction from many fans and critics hints that we’re looking at one of Stone Sour’s best works since the release of their 2002 album of the same name. This means that the 2017 album “Hydrograd” will definitely be a sales and awards success.

Although personally, I’m only excited about half of the tracks. The rest are just good. Well, without a couple of passing songs too. But first things first.

The glorious city of “Hydrograd”

In fact, the Stone Sour album “Hydrograd” is a pretty good straightforward compilation of about fifteen songs (the Japanese version has two more) in the hard rock/heavy metal genre with a little admixture of punk rock and the band’s signature alternative style. According to the band members, Christian Martucci, who replaced Jim Root on lead guitar, was one of the factors that made the album so unusual.

As for the tracks that make up Stone Sour’s “Hydrograd” album, I want to detail only those that I really liked in the review.

“Ysif” is an atmospheric, ominous and impressive intro at the same time. You could pick up many more similar adjectives (dark, moody, mystical), but essentially you just have to listen to it to understand what it’s about. All in all, as an accompaniment sounding during the entrance/exit to a certain city called “Hydrograd”, very cool.

“Taipei Person/Allah Tea” is the song with the original title, which contains just the most excellent, very varied instrumental lineup. I also want to mention the change of Corey’s vocal style from heavy (in couplets) to light (in chorus) – at first it seemed that it didn’t really fit, but after the second listening I got into the theme and loved this track forever.

“Hydrograd”. I wish that the song repeating the title of the new Stone Sour album was not so ambiguous. But it is what it is. In the beginning, except separate notes which are similar with the atmosphere of “Ysif”, nothing else caught your attention.

But closer to the middle, the song becomes more interesting. First, the sarcastic and triumphant Cory Taylor’s phrase “I’m not better than you, I’m just better” that starts the second verse (when the music fades out briefly) and continues the theme of the Hydrograd album cover (“You suck all the way”) caught on.

And then, before the third verse, there’s a powerful playback that is, in part, thanks to Martucci. It’s fragments like this that make it clear just how much of a virtuoso musician the band managed to get. All in all, the song, though not the best song on the album, is quite successful in its role as the track that carries the essence of the album.

“Fabuless” is the song that gives you a chance to shake your hayer. This is something more lively and interesting in terms of sound, vocals, emotions. In short, this is the heavy artillery, which Stone Sour used to disarm those who think that “Hydrograd” is a bad album. By the way, I noticed the phrase “It’s only rock & roll (but I like it)” in the lyrics, which, as I understand it, is a reference to The Rolling Stones.

Special mention should be made of the schizo video made for this track, which you should definitely watch.

“Rose Red Violent Blue (This Song Is Dumb & So Am I)”. An interesting start, and overall the track is very unusual and catchy. A kind of Southern indie rock, with Taylor reflecting on his age and how everything in his life has changed. The choruses were a bit “drained” of that originality, but I liked it overall.

“Thank God It’s Over” is sublime rock that highlights Taylor’s vocal abilities and the band’s stellar musicality. Peppy riffs, pretty catchy chorus. Score.

“St. Marie” is a lyrical love song, quite atypical for the Hydrograd album and Stone Sour in general. I’d even say – a blues-country-rock ballad with a very interesting backing towards the end (a Hawaiian guitar?) and almost a church choir in the background, which is pretty appropriate, considering the title and the theme of the song.

It seems to me that with this track, awakening in the listener’s soul a bouquet of various feelings, Corey Taylor and company as if to say: “We still can do this, but the time has not come yet.

“Mercy.” Another pretty catchy “level” song, which Hydrograd would like to see more of.

“Whiplash Pants” and “Somebody Stole My Eyes” are heavy, venomous, fast-paced, aggressive, brain-breaking tracks that will appeal to anyone who “tastes” the “rare but apt” drive of Taylor and company.

“When The Fever Broke” is an atmospheric, melancholy song with a powerful solo and a touch of mystique. In my opinion, it’s the best lyrical track not only on the “Hydrograd” album, but in the whole Stone Sour oeuvre. Every time you listen to it again and again you discover something new in it (from goosebumps to tears in your eyes).

The rest of the tracks from the new Sour album “Hydrograd” didn’t quite work out for me. It seems like the sounding is high, and the vocals. But you can’t expect anything else from a band of such level. In general all it is somehow “standard” and poorly remembered. No, I’m not saying that “Knievel Has Landed”, “Song #3”, “The Witness Trees”, and “Friday Knights” are bad tracks. It’s just that there are a lot of these songs from Stone Sour and competing bands alike. The only frankly satisfying thing is that there are fewer of them than, for example, on Nickelback’s recently released new album “Feed The Machine.”

Is “Hydrograd” good or bad?

“Hydrograd” is a pretty long hard rock/metal album with a dose of delightful “old school” elements referencing everything from Led Zeppelin to early Metallica. But it’s not a move back to the 80’s at all, no – it’s a talentedly realized modern take on nostalgic metal. This is truly the new Stone Sour – the way you don’t expect to hear them.

That’s why this record may not appeal to hardcore alternative and nu-metal fans who forget that Stone Sour is no Slipknot. And vice versa, classic hard rockers who previously had a hard time perceiving Stone Sour’s music will definitely like “Hydrograd”.

Me, being in between these two categories of music lovers, and leaning a bit more towards the latter, I can estimate the new Stone Sour album “Hydrograd” as “good, but could be better”.

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