### Stone Sour: Audio secrecy

#### 30/09/10 || cadenz

Corey Taylor, or #8 as he is also known, is one of the most heralded and critically acclaimed frontmen of the new millennium. His work in, front and foremost, Slipknot has garnered an incredible amount of fans and record sales all over the world, and for good reason. A very charismatic leader he is, with a good voice to boot. Why I’m raving about him is ‘cause a popular mainstream band like Stone Sour stands and falls with its vocalist/frontman. It is certainly not a one-man show, but not far off.

This, Stone Sour’s third album, is a continuation of their radio-friendly rock past, albeit with some more extremes. The hard is harder and the soft is softer. You get the picture. Sing-along choruses, such as the one on “Mission Statement”, are still the aces in SS’s sleeves, along with a clear and polished production. Some of the poppier stuff really gets to me in a bad way though, it’s way too fucken…emo. Yes, that’s what it is, it’s fucken emo. I had almost repressed the memory of that word from my brain, but here it fucken pops up to the surface again like a jacuzzi shart. “Say You’ll Haunt Me” for example, the first official single from the album, gets quite tiresome with its modern pop/rock arrangements and whiny vocals. The next track, “Dying”, is much better with some acoustic guitars and ballsier vocals in the beginning, setting more of a mood and managing to sound a lot less plastic. Acoustic ballad “Imperfect” is also quality stuff, with nice vocal harmonies in the choruses.

Let’s talk about the band. Jim Root pulls off some virtuosic solos, which I applaud. The rest of the band do their work well but do it away from the limelight, which I applaud. Taylor sounds of course awesome. Much can be said about his taste, but he sure fucken knows how to perform the stuff he likes. If I’d pick one song where he shines the most, it’d have to be the ballad-morphs-into-heavy-weight closer “Threadbare”. One of the better tracks on the record for sure.

The production is as mentioned clear and polished. It does suit the music rather well, and there’s some punch to be had as well, but with these guys’ budget I would be surprised if the album didn’t sound fan-fucken-tastic. Good job, hugely merited producer guy Nick Raskulinecz. You avoid murder by assphyxiation. You know, if someone, say a huge bodybuilder dude, shoves your head up some other poor bastard’s ass. Then you fucken die by suffocation. Also known as asphyxiation. Yeah. I know you’re laughing your ass off right now. Not. Cut me some slack, I am being inventive. Plus I love my jokes. I know you don’t, and that’s fine. I love that it’s fine. It’s so fucken fine. Fine fine fine fine fine fucken facerape fine. Getting extremely frustrated yet? Good. I applaud myself. My devilish plan has come to life. Am I evil? Whoop, whoop. Of course I am. Now where’s my medication…

My favorite tracks on “Audio Secrecy” in addition to “Threadbare” are probably “Let’s Be Honest” and “Nylon 6/6”. They both mix some nice Soundgarden-esque grunge harmonies and heavy as fuck pounding which would not be out of place on a Slipknot album. And they both have soaring, catchy choruses, of course. It’s just a shame not all the songs on the disc hold up to the same quality. The album is pretty much hit or miss, with roughly half the tracks being mildly interesting at the most. Some are just plain boring. For the next record do please consider this advice: do not write trendy pop/rock songs, stick with your grunge roots and embrace your dark side. It is your destiny. (“Give someone a helping hand” just became my favorite good deed.)

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Roadrunner
- Website: www.stonesour.com
- Band
- Corey Taylor: lead vocals, guitars, piano
- James Root: lead guitars, keyboard, backing vocals
- Josh Rand: rhythm guitars
- Shawn Economaki: bass
- Roy Mayorga: drums, percussions

- Tracklist
- 01. Audio Secrecy
- 02. Mission Statement
- 03. Digital (Did You Tell)
- 04. Say You’ll Haunt Me
- 05. Dying
- 06. Let’s Be Honest
- 07. Unfinished
- 08. Hesitate
- 09. Nylon 6/6
- 10. Miracles
- 11. Pieces
- 12. The Bitter End
- 13. Imperfect
- 14. Threadbare