Staind
14 Shades Of Grey

THE REVIEW

14 Shades Of Grey... Because life is not just black or white, but sometimes it hangs in the balance, in the grey.

It sounds like a slogan, yet this is precisely the meaning behind the title of Staind's 4th album, which aims to replicate the sales success of the previous "Break The Cycle".

This group, praised by critics and hated by metalheadz (also because it's produced by the omnipresent Fred Durst), indeed tries to replicate what they already did in the previous record; that is, an easy-listening (and commercial?) rock made of melodic ballads or quite energetic pieces composed of slow verses that explode in the chorus, offering nothing new. After careful listening, I noticed that the album features good songs, like the single "Price To Play" (a song that powerfully opens the CD), the sweet "How About You", the melodic "So Far Away", the strong "Yesterday", the beautiful "Fill Me Up", and the ballad "Zoe Jane" which the singer dedicated to his daughter. Now you might say: so what? The fact is that the album, up to the midpoint, until track no. 7 "Fill Me Up", features good songs and at times even qualitatively better than Break The Cycle, but from the midpoint onwards it really leaves much to be desired with useless songs that have nothing truly noteworthy, exposing the more monotonous side of Staind's sound (how boring!); only the good "Reality" and the fairly decent closing "Intro" are worth mentioning. A note for "Layne," a song dedicated to the late singer of Alice In Chains, which however only makes me want to skip the track. The sounds of the CD are, as mentioned, more or less the same as the previous work with a few small modifications (it seems less 'dark' than its predecessor) and there's a noticeable increase in melody, which makes the songs too similar to each other. The lyrics, true to Staind tradition, speak of disappointments, sadness, but also hope with a good dose of anger. There's nothing to say about Aaron Lewis's performance, stunning, powerful, and melodic voice, and always damn clean.

In short, I expected something more (I prefer Break The Cycle), but Staind manage very well to play this kind of melodic rock (post-grunge/nu metal or however you want to define it) and if they are listened to without many problems and prejudices, they can sometimes convey a lot of emotions. However, this album only succeeded halfway; and moreover, it lacks heavier tracks like "Pressure" "For You" or "Open Your Eyes".