SALIVA | 10 Lives | Album Review

Time and time again, it has been proven that there are still some bands that have proven to last much longer than their initial wave of success. Saliva is definitely one of those. Starting in the 1990's but not catching steam until "Every Six Seconds" debuted in 2001 amongst a thriving nu-metal scene, the band is now on their tenth studio album aptly titled "10 Lives". For anyone who is not as familiar with this band, they have had a strange history. Many Saliva fans remember Josey Scott as the lead vocalist and chances are if you're checking Saliva out for the first time, you'll most likely start with material involving him as the frontman. After leaving the band in 2012 to try and start a solo career of his own, we got Bobby Amaru from Burn Season as the vocalist who took the band into a new direction. The two albums that followed, "Rise Up" and "Love Lies And Therapy" were solid efforts overall even though they did not do anything groundbreaking as far as Saliva is concerned, but still had highs and lows. With "10 Lives", we get a similar pitch that those two albums got with press releases stating that this album featured "earworm hooks, shredding solos, and razor-sharp production" as well as it being the band's most relentless album yet. It is great to see that a band that has lasted this long is not giving up on making music for the fans that care about them, but what exactly lies in these songs that proves that Saliva are stronger than ever? 

"Domination", "Only The Strong Survive", "Some Shit About Love", and "Close To The Edge" kick off this album on a heavier footing and you can tell that the production, hooks, and at times the solos are definitely there. The real disappointment regarding it is that the only track that has any sort of appeal is the first of those, "Domination", which is a fun and aggressive track that doesn't need to be taken seriously in order to enjoy. With the other songs, there are certain elements that stand out well which mostly comes from the guitarwork. This is not an album that only relies on same-sounding solos or mediocre riffage like some Saliva albums that won't be named for fear of cringeworthy thoughts. In fact, the solo on "Some Shit About Love" (or "Some Thing About Love") is pretty good. But the writing is the biggest problem throughout this entire album. This is painfully generic writing that feels like a local band ghost wrote most of the album and let Saliva record it. "Only The Strong Survive", "The Warning", "Pissed", and especially the song "Close To The Edge" are written in that sense to the point to where you can predict each line that is going to be heard. These are topics that are not being tackled in a unique way but rather it's just repeating what other bands have done. It doesn't stand out in any way. Songs such as "Helpless", "When I'm Gone" and "Make You Famous" are also examples of this and at some points it feels like the band is trying to recreate stuff that they have already done with Josey Scott, but it's so cheesy and somewhat pandering that it doesn't register any real emotion or believability. 

I'm not saying that this album is awful or terrible, because it's really not. Only two or three out of these fourteen songs leave a bad taste. And there are good tracks on this album like "Epidemic" that has an Alice In Chains vibe that really works and sticks out in a good way. "Gone Away" and "The Snake" aren't half bad either as they are perfectly serviceable to their target audience and have elements that are fleshed out. But, this is an album that could have had a good four or five songs trimmed off of it and it would at least be okay. Let me make it clear that this project is FAR from Saliva's worst (bow howdy, that trophy has already been taken). But, with a band that has had ten albums now you would expect more variety and interesting writing and song construction. Like with Nonpoint and their newest release, this is a band that doesn't seem to be too focused on that. This is a slightly better album than that, but with this album you're not getting anything different than what you've heard from any other rock band in the past 10 years, especially if you hear most of the underground stuff that sounds similar to this. Overall, "10 Lives" will please the die hard fans of Saliva and will please people that casually listen to rock music and happen to find them on Spotify for the first time, but for complete value, this clearly isn't going to last long in your brain once you hear it. 

RATING: 5/10

Leave your thoughts about this album in the comments section below. Was this album good or bad? Was it a surprise or a disappointment? All you have to do is type it in. Everybody's opinions matter even if they are different than mine. Scamp4553 will be back with more reviews and content coming your way soon.

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