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Rating: Discovered by Limp Bizkit's leader, Fred Durst, Staind releases their second album after the excellent "Break The Cycle," namely "14 Shades Of Gray." This album, which came out in 2003, how is it, you ask? Just like the first one. Completely like the first one. Except for a few slight variations. The music is a very intense hard rock, but nevertheless does not lack the emotional component: listen to the beginning of Price To Play and all of Zoe Jane, dedicated to the daughter of Staind's leader, Aaron Lewis. Despite this, on this album, Staind has invented nothing. Absolutely nothing.
But let's analyze the songs: the aforementioned Price To Play has some very powerful riffs. In How About You, after a quiet start (but not too much), you hear quite a few accelerations. So Far Away is the same as the previous one, although the middle part is reminiscent of Outside from the previous album. Yesterday is much more dynamic; here Lewis, despite his screams, keeps the tone "clean," as is his usual. Fray is a fairly melancholic ballad, but it has that vocal anger that manages to keep the song at a decent level. Zoe Jane, as mentioned earlier, is a very romantic ballad, but finally, with Fill Me Up, we wake up a bit after the many ballads heard so far, although the final part of the track "advises" us to go back to bed... Now comes a very touching moment, with Layne, dedicated to the late leader of Alice In Chains, Layne Staley; the track is inspired by A.I.C. (and it couldn't be otherwise) and has a truly beautiful and moving text.
Nevertheless, a spontaneous question arises: is this a nu-metal album like "Break The Cycle," or are we approaching grunge sounds? The answer, after hearing Falling Down, Reality, Could It Be, and Blow Away, seems to me to be yes. The album closes with the interesting Intro, which perhaps engages more than the other tracks (except for Zoe Jane).
All in all, Staind's second effort can be considered good: the major flaw is that the band wanted to exactly repeat the sound of "Break The Cycle", which is absolutely wrong in my view. A metal band, for me, is worthy of being called such when it manages to produce masterpieces while rarely maintaining the sound of the previous albums.
And yet... listen to what I found on a website. The words are from Aaron Lewis:
"Why try to change our sound when people appreciate what we're doing now? We need to worry about giving people what they want because we like this and this is what we want to do. We're not maniacs of evolution and innovation at all costs, if you find a product that pleases the public you'll continue to make that product until people get bored: that will be the time to change."
At this point: to the audience the difficult verdict.
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