Today American Rock band Shinedown released their deluxe version of their hit album, The Sound of Madness. Previous deluxe albums have had 25 tracks on them with this only having 20, so for the Jacksonville boys they really need to make sure this album is worth the loss of 5 tracks.Shinedown are a 9 year old band, formed mainly by lead singer Brent Smith they have stormed the US by due to the limitations of their record company, Atlantic Records have struggled in the UK. This is due to album only being sold as digital downloads with a hard copy not easy, or cheap to get hold of in this country.
Atlantic Records have some big people on their books; James Blunt, Phil Collins and 3OH!3 are all big artists that have signed with them. It seems that Atlantic pushes some artists more than others in the UK. Being over 6o years old it is not a new label, in fact it is owned by Time Warner, a very powerful media company.
Shinedown admit themselves they are a 'grass roots' band and that The Sound of Madness was the only one of their 3 albums to get real exposure in the UK, so this deluxe album should be good.
Sadly, this is not the case. The 'new' album actually only contains 3 genuinely new tracks with, 3 already being re
leased during this year and the rest from the original album. They new pull version of, The Cro
w and the Butterfly is a complete shambles compared to the original music. The background mus
ic to the vocals sounds like a bad hip hop track conjoined with a dance track.
It's not all doom and gloom with the album, Breaking Inside featuring Lzzy Hale from Halestorm is a breath of fresh air to a now out-dated set of songs. Her vocals add a new edge to the track with a different sort of flow to whole set out of the track. The first 14 tracks are amazing, I can't take that away from the 4 piece band, but these have been around since 2007 and it is time they did themselves justice.
I am a big Shinedown fan, owning every song and album they have released but will admit that this album feels rushed. It doesn't seem fair to the fans to chuck on a few tracks which many true fans would have already purchased previousley in the year. This does not compare to the true shock of them to ruin one of their best songs, I think that will remain a mystery.
In my honest opinion, it's worth just buying the new version of Breaking Inside, and saving your money for the eventual release of their 4th album.
This review is for the UK version, not the American version including DVD.
Picture Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/preorder/the-sound-of-madness/id404058000
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