Anyone who read my “Thoughts on Mudvayne” rant a few weeks ago knows how I feel about Hellyeah. Hellyeah to me, now, is the closest link people have to Mudvayne anymore in terms of new music, and right now, with this album, they have given us a blessing that gives Mudvayne fans nostalgia for the old days. But without thinking about Mudvayne, “Blood For Blood” by itself is a fantastic album without question, no doubt, no excuses, no bullshit, completely amazing. I’ve been looking forward to this album ever since “Sangre Por Sangre (Blood For Blood)” was released on YouTube because I knew this was going to be different from their previous albums that were laid back and you can kind of recline and listen to them or play them at a barbecue and no one would object. But this one everyone could tell this was going to be something totally different from anything Hellyeah had done before. Most people could tell that this was going to be a heavy piece of work that’ll have that Chad Gray charm that many people have come to recognize as wonderfully awesome.
“Blood For Blood” met everyone’s expectations and even surpassed mine. The entire album has a constant tone that I cannot place specifically, but I can say that it definitely had a grunge sound to it that sounds great when coupled with the guitars and the drums which do an amazing job in their own territories. I can tell many, many people thought the entire album front to back would be hardcore and metal, but it’s not. Some of the songs, not many, are softer than the rest but still keep that tone and feel that the ones before them had. My favorite of those is “Hush” that has amazing lyrics that are chock-full of meaning and even the words themselves have weight if you pay close enough attention to them. “Hush” also has an acoustic version of itself at the very end of the album which sounds just as good as the normal version did, except for the fact that (in my own personal opinion) the song could have sounded just as good if not better if they kept the drums from the original, which were great. The heavier songs, however, were also amazing. The guitars keep their heavy and brutal pace the entire time while sounding fantastic the whole time. Chad Gray’s vocals are, of course, amazing, as they always are and there’s nothing else I can say about them because there isn’t anything else to say. The drums are also fantastic as they’ve always been because if you know who the drummer is you’d also know his skills and experience.
The full album is released for purchase on June 10 in America, but you can listen to “Blood For Blood” in its entirety on YouTube and pre-order the album on iTunes.
PRE-ORDER “Blood For Blood” on iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blood-for-blood/id857887251
LISTEN to “Blood For Blood” :
LIKE Hellyeah on Facebook : http://facebook.com/hellyeahband
FOLLOW Hellyeah on Twitter : @hellyeahband
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