I've been a big fan of Halestorm for a while now, not least of which the ReAnimate EP's which showcased the bands influences with a series of interesting and quirky covers. However, this time around, the band has decided to switch things up a little with Reimagined.
Halestorm have been putting albums out since 2009 (how the time flies!) and it's been their tradition to release a quick EP between albums. Reimagined follows 2018's Vicious, the album that finally pushed them up to arena headliners in the UK and topped the UK Rock charts and reached no. 8 on the mainstream charts. In 2019 they headlined the second stage at the Download Festival, and took a heavily female led tour across Europe and the UK. It's fairly safe to say that Halestorm are kind of a big deal now. That said:
Reimagined is kind of a disappointment to me.
Instead of paying tribute to the acts that inspired them like before, this release features only one cover and instead the band plays around with some of their biggest hits and reinterpret them. And without fail, this means stripping them of the harder edge that made these songs so arresting in the first place. It doesn't make them bad songs, or these versions without merit, but you find yourself waiting for the crunch that just doesn't come.
What we have here is a set of six stripped back songs, not quite unplugged but certainly taken in a much less distorted direction. The song that works the best is 'Break In', as that was always a ballad, and fits the tone already. The addition of Evanescence's Amy Lee provides some nice harmonies to the second half, but in being so close to the original, it's both the most effective and is the least reimagined. But as with most of these songs, there's a lack of edge. On the original Lzzy sounds angry and hurt at times, on this version, there is a lot less emoting.
Notably 'Mz. Hyde' features a dirty fuzz bass which evokes Primus's cover of 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia', but is (despite a low in the mix late solo) otherwise a straight acoustic version. The bass works very well, but it makes me wish they'd found a way to push the song further. It has a latent threat that never goes for the kill. It's like a Disney Villain song in a way. Low key menace, but never actually delivering that essential blow.
'I Get Off' starts the EP with a reverb drenched staccato riff that is almost unrecognisable until the singing starts. The fuzzy bass is here too, but much lower in the mix. And you don't really notice it until the breakdown about two thirds through. Again, my main problem is that it's starts off so well, and then doesn't carry that forward. The intro promises a spacy, mid era Linkin Park almost reimagining, but that never happens. It's just 'I Get Off' with reverb.
I Miss The Misery cheekily starts with the sound of the original played through a distant radio, stutters out like it could turn into a bit of an industrial vibe, but the intro has almost a summer pop jam vibe, and the song just turns into an acoustic number. Like a late 90's indie pop song, like Tal Bachman's 'She's So High' (gosh, who remembers that?) except without the soaring third chorus. '...Misery' instead drops a breakdown which kills a lot of the songs momentum. It's a testament to the strength of Halestorm's songwriting that the song doesn't suffer for that too much.
'I Am The Fire' starts much the same, but the fuzz bass does make a welcome comeback midway through to emphasise the breakdown, but it doesn't stick around and the song continues on it's acoustic way until the ending moments when a wild electric solo appears to accompany the tune out.
I've never really liked 'I Will Always Love You' when sung by Dolly Parton or its more famous Whitney Houston cover so all I can really say is it's a pretty straight run through, there are no surprises here. If you like either of those originals, Lzzy won't disappoint you.
Overall the quality of songwriting still shows though here, and while I don't think I'll be revisiting this EP very often it's not a bad offering by any means. It's simply that for me the majority of the songs on here have already had the definitive versions released and these (with the possible exception of 'Mz Hyde') don't go in enough interesting directions to keep coming back to.
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