Unchanged Melodies

As 2020 comes to a close, we've been graced with another hard rock collaboration -- Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen, two well-respected names in the guitar world, have released their debut single as Smith/Kotzen. Smith, one of the driving forces behind Iron Maiden's unique sound, concedes the compositional spotlight to Kotzen, who performed with Poison and Mr. Big (though after both bands had faded out of the spotlight) before joining the supergroup The Winery Dogs in 2012. The single, "Taking My Chances," mainly sounds like the more electric guitar-driven output of Hagar-era Van Halen or some of Mr. Big's more overlooked songs (remember that "To Be With You" was an anomaly in their catalog!) with both Smith and Kotzen showcasing their chops throughout -- you'll hear little licks scattered throughout the verses and choruses, and a neat trade-off solo showcasing all sorts of techniques. Don't come into this expecting much Iron Maiden influence, th...

One of the most polarizing names in rock music right now, Greta Van Fleet, released their lengthy promotional single, "Age of Machine," around a week ago. Along with "My Way, Soon" from last October, "Age of Machine" will appear on their upcoming album, The Battle at Garden's Gate, in April of next year. Even now, the comparisons to Led Zeppelin haven't died down, with some likening the album's title to a combination of the classic Zeppelin tunes "The Battle of Evermore" and "Stairway to Heaven." But the band is definitely showing signs of breaking away from being a Zeppelin carbon copy, though the signs are still there. In contrast with the upbeat, jangly sound of "My Way, Soon," "Age of Machine" is a slow, haunting adventure describing the life of those who have grown up, or will grow up, in the digital age. Many have already compared this to Zeppelin's own semi-marathon of "The Rain Song,...

Roughly a week ago, the Smashing Pumpkins released their latest album, the double-album Cyr. The band has once again recovered from instability in their lineup, bringing back the "core" of vocalist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin that played on their high-water mark albums of the 1990s, but also on 2007's critically panned but still completely serviceable release, Zeitgeist.  Interestingly, this album marked an abrupt pivot into synth-pop territory, something you probably couldn't anticipate even from their more recent material, particularly its direct precursor, 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1, which stayed true to their guitar-driven sound. Also in sharp contrast are the two records' lengths -- Shiny and Oh So Bright runs for just over 30 minutes, while Cyr runs for 72. Though the more subdued instrumentation by itself isn't terrible, it doesn't work very well with Corgan's voice (incidentally, an opinion ...

In yet another of 2020's musical comebacks, Australian rock legends AC/DC have released a new album, Power Up. The past few years for the band have been fraught with a myriad of troubles, in between drummer Phil Rudd's house arrest for trying to make "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" a reality, to lead singer Brian Johnson's vocal issues that led to Axl Rose temporarily taking his place live, and co-founder and guitarist Malcolm Young's battle with dementia and eventual death from lung cancer. Despite all this, Rudd has come back, Johnson has recovered, and Malcolm's nephew Stevie returned from assuming his duties on the previous record, Rock or Bust. And two months after they announced the end of their hiatus, they've put out a release that somehow after nearly 50 years of being around, still sounds as polished as ever. The first three tracks, including lead single "Shot in the Dark," are the type of AC/DC songs casual listeners would probably b...