Theory of a Deadman
Savages

I know exactly what you're thinking as soon as you opened this review:
<Oh no! Yet another copycat album from a lousy band!>
But that's not entirely true, this time Theory Of a Deadman have tried a slightly different path; but let's go in order.

Some of you may already know that this band is often, (sometimes even too much) associated with Nickelback,
both for sometimes very similar sounds and especially for the voice of the singer, Tyler Connolly, who presumably broke Chad Kroeger's balls so hard until he convinced him in 2001
to listen to and produce their demo of "Invisible Man," maybe also to stop the rumors online that pointed to the song as a side project of the latter.
Since then, ToD, that is: Tyler on vocals, Dave Brenner on guitar, Dean Back on bass as the basic lineup and alternating various drummers until Joey Dandeneau,
have started to move, managing to attract the attention of Roadrunner Records and release several albums already reviewed on this site.

As depicted on the cover showing a child looking through a window at a rust-colored town that almost seems to be on fire, surrounded by rather dark tones,
our guys try to venture into an environment of less cheerful and carefree sounds not perfectly and perhaps sometimes a bit too forcibly;

the album opens with "Drown," which is also the track that heralded the album,
complete with a video depicting a small religious community, ready to point fingers and sacrifice the virgin of the moment.
It's a good song that quite represents the musical compromise reached by the band in this album and the pressing simple but effective bass line is appreciable.

The second track is "Blow," which seems to have landed there by chance from some old recording; in fact, it could easily be inserted into an old album, negligible and out of place, with little use of the strings added here and there in the background to make the song, with its socio-critical and irreverent lyrics, seem more serious.

The third track returns to interesting tones with the feature of "Alice Cooper," you read it right, and his croaky voice in the choruses is heard and makes a difference,
as well as a guitar solo that seems to have slipped directly from the '80s just to distract the good artist and make him feel at home.
The title track brings us straight back to the atmospheres and lyrics connected to the atmospheres recalled by the cover with phrases like:
<War war! Is what we need, steal your money and feed our greed>
an outstanding song, one of my favorites on the album.

Follows closely "Misery of Mankind," probably not the best but the tones remain mean, almost making you turn the album in your hands to see if it's a ToD one,
but certainly in this song, the guitar distortions and Tyler's voice which doesn't fall short, and the choruses of Dave and Dean which sneak in between effects are to be appreciated.

Immediately after is one of the tracks that surprised me the most, "Salt In The Wound," which starts slow but after a few seconds delivers a piece that seems straight out of a Korn song,
unfortunately, the lyrics are the classic post-breakup rage so they feel already heard, but on musical levels, it's pleasing, if these are the love songs from this CD, welcome them.

The next track could easily be sung by the Backstreet Boys, "Angel" tries the old commercial formula of ToD, unfortunately a slow song with lyrics that say nothing.
Following is the song "Heavy," which tries to pick itself up after the previous style drop but doesn't fully succeed because it seems like an old ToD song masked with a partly nice base, riffs, and effects placed there just to justify the song's title.

Better does "Panic Room," which tries not to drop the pace from start to finish and achieves good results even if it suffers from vocal choices that don't fully convince me, just before the chorus they seem taken from Aerosmith, too bad that Tyler Connolly forgot he isn't Steven Tyler thus appearing rather ridiculous.

Unfortunately, the following tracks plunge this album back into the abyss, "The One" is a piano piece of disarming slowness, and with piano music that seems played by a child, the only thing to do is skip.
Follows another awful piece, "Livin' My Life Like a Country Song," or rather, out of place, since here we enter country territory with Jon Don Rooney from Rascal Flatts, which honestly seems like a rather shameless attempt to win over various U.S. fans of said musical style throwing in some guitar riffs here and there to prevent putting everyone else to sleep.

But the album isn't over, and "World War Me" ensures it, returning to pressing bass and drum rhythms, soon joined by Dave's guitar putting the dots on the "i's," reminding us of the path the album should maintain and not denying us even a small hint of a solo. The decent lyrics talk about anger and inner conflict, sure, don't expect pure poetry, we're talking about ToD, but as a song, it convinces even though here I would have spared some support choir towards the end of the song. Overall another great song that lifts the album.

With "In ruin," we truly return to ruin, sure it's not as bad as the other ballads but I just can't accept the syrupy choruses and Backstreet Boys-style chorales in this album.

Luckily before closing, they manage to give us another piece worthy of this album, "The Sun Has Set On Me" is the slow piece I wanted to hear, consistent with the spirit and atmospheres of the album, a pleasant closure that reminds ToD that when they want something good, they can do it.

Overall, this album is far from perfect, but there are many tracks that surprise those who have known and appreciated them for the simple and direct rock of pieces like "Bad Girlfriend" or "Bitch Came Back," and it is evident that much water has flowed under the bridge since "Invisible Man," which really seemed pulled from a Nickelback album (I know it's been a while since I last mentioned them but I've stumbled), overall an album that shows they are growing, and I hope they have finished with fillers discarded from previous albums added there to lower the average of an album that without those 4 songs would have passed with flying colors.

P.S.
This is my first review, so forgive a few imperfections, and I accept advice. Starting with one of my favorite albums by adding reviews where there are already numerous ones for Metallica or Maiden or AC/DC seemed useless and annoying, so I wanted to fill this gap on ToD.