“Hydrograd” is Stone Sour’s sixth studio album, released June 30, 2017, and was the band’s first release not featuring guitarist James “Jim” Root.
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”.