HELLYEAH | Welcome Home | Album Review

Since last year, the men who make the supergroup Hellyeah have been coping with losing drummer Vinnie Paul, one of the band's founding members and an influential drummer in the metal scene overall. Such a devastating death can quickly bring bands to their end, but in the case of Hellyeah, the project is continuing to soar on as their sixth studio album "Welcome Home" is released to the public. "Welcome Home" marks Vinnie Paul's final personnel credit, and the band has offered some compelling statements about the new album, particularly from bassist Kyle Sanders who proclaimed in an interview that Vinnie Paul would be unhappy if the album they worked hard on did not receive a good promotional push or even a release date to get it out there. For those of you who aren't as familiar with me, I have had a mostly negative relationship with the band Hellyeah, particularly due to vocalist Chad Gray and his vocal style and writing. Even coming off of the heels of two miserable albums entitled "Blood For Blood" and "Unden!able", there is at least a modicum of hope that Hellyeah can turn things around and make an album work. Losing a band member, and especially one that's been a prolific part of a genre of music, can bring forth some real inspiration for any band to build an album around. It's worked well in the past, and second chances are always a thing to take advantage of if a band has not delivered something substantial to you within their previous material. 

Five singles were released before the album, proving that the band seemed confident with what they made. The opening cut "333" was released back in March, meanwhile the title track, "Oh My God", "Perfect" and "Black Flag Army" were put out in the time between the album's official announcement in May and the eventual release of the eleven-track album. "333" kicks off the album in a heavier fashion and is probably one of the heavier tracks featured on "Welcome Home"... and that's where all the positivity ends about this track because "333" also has the distinction of being one of the worst songs released in 2019. It's Chad Gray's typical screaming vocals mixed in with awful lyrics about the man's life being "torn to pieces" and using constant and unneeded profanity to further drive the point home. This feels like a song written by a 14 year old high schooler from the mid 2000's. The title track, which is now among the Top 5 most played songs on rock radio is a little bit better, but not by much. To be fair, this song does have some sentiment and solid writing attempts to engage the listener, but is capped off with a bridge that includes the hilariously bad line "All you fucking little pigs I'll blow you down". It's something that could have worked given the writing in the verses, but it's like Gray intentionally wanted to sabotage the track with that line, not to mention the screaming vocals he utilizes here are misplaced as well. It's the prime definition of wasted potential, and that's what is present on a majority of tracks throughout this project. 

I just want to let this be known right out of the gate when describing this album. This does sound like a minor step up from Hellyeah's previous work which had a lot more facepalm and outright bothersome moments featured throughout, but that still does not make the album a good album. Most of these songs do blend in with each other and don't offer enough variety, and the production of this entire album is weak. It's a Kevin Churko production, so of course you get drums that sound artificial and fake which is somewhat of a disservice to Vinnie Paul as a drummer, and overall with the other instruments involved it doesn't have an organic quality to it. And even beyond the production issues, there is still a lot of mediocrity to sift through. Songs such as "Black Flag Army" and "Bury You" lack quality. "Oh My God" and "At Wick's End" have ideas that could work decently, but in the end register as songs that don't have a lot of replay value other than if they get released to radio. Then, there is "Boy" which appears at the end of the album, and it is a pure comedic experience given that the lyrics are so immature and terrible and Gray's delivery feels like a joke band trying to imitate some of the worst moments of Hellyeah's and even Mudvayne's careers. Listen to it. There's no real meaning to the song, and I do not know how anyone would write lyrics like this unless they found a way to get stoned or drunk while recording. If you like it, go ahead, but it's tracks like "Boy" that turn me in the opposite direction from this band. 

To be fair, the album does have moments that stick out decently. The song "Perfect" is probably the most inoffensive radio rock song these guys have made, and at least here they work in a good rhythm and Chad's delivery is a bit stronger. The closing cut "Skyy And Water", is probably the most divergent cut of Hellyeah's entire career relying on softer instruments and a calmer delivery in the vocals. Even if the song's title is awkwardly spelled and it comes across as jarring after immediately following "Boy", it still comes out as the true highlight here. It's a solid sendoff for an album that doesn't even come close to hitting the mark in terms of good music like Hellyeah's other albums. I hate to say it, but, this album is probably Hellyeah's magnum opus. But, that's like saying that Dollar Tree and Five Below are better places to shop than a generic dollar store that's mostly vacant. Vinnie Paul would probably be proud of his band for still going on even after Paul's tragic passing, and I'm not in any way detracting from his drumming talent, but the band he left behind once again does not hit the mark aside from a couple of choice tracks and a few solid riffs. It's not as bad as the previous two trainwrecks from this band, but it's still not good. Overall, "Welcome Home" is another lackluster entry in Hellyeah's unimpressive back catalogue. Fans of Hellyeah may love this album and blast it through their speakers, but if this is the "home" they're referring to in the album title, than "home" isn't a very interesting place.

RATING: 5/10 

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