Fozzy
Sin and Bones

I could summarize this album by dropping you a famous title: Hallowed be Thy Name. 'Sin And Bones' has used the classic guitar riff directly from that song in their A Passed Life but I think that the theme of the song matches the theme of the album as well - it's dark and almost spooky at times with a distinctive feeling of death anxciety. For example the albums opens with a horror movie suiting version of Itsy Bitsy Spider beginning with a music box plinking and then transforming in to Spider In My Mouth - a quite typical modern American rock song the way we've got to know 'em in the last decade.

With plenty of recognizable names, Fozzy is a so called super band and every time a super band appears they get somewhat of a hype about them. However, Fozzy has been around for 13 years now and this is their fifth full length album so it's not just a hype with Fozzy, they are here to stay and for this album they've actually said their target is to make a hit album, a new 'Metallica' - a classic that will make Fozzy a household name. That's a pretty optimistic goal and it's probably easy to just snort "dream on" when you hear it, but then again - why couldn't they? I like an optimistic attitude so bring it on, Fozzy - give me all you got!

Spider In My Mouth feels like a song that could have been performed by their Cockroach touring partners in Papa Roach - suffocated vocals, enervating simple guitars and melodies that could have been stolen from K-mart putted in a song that seems to aiming for the eye catching attitude but fails miserable (kind of like every Papa Roach song). The second song is the first single of the album and is called Sandpaper and this is a song that present the band in much better light - vocals are more powerful, melodies more catchy and the chorus sticks. However, the music is still pretty simple but as it's planned to get some airplay on the radio it's more understandable because the moment you make a single that isn't as easy as a slut you're removed from the A-list faster than Usain Bolt and dropped completely soon after. I think this album really begins at the third track as Blood Happens is the first proper song with a heavier attitude and less plain feeling. The band adds more varied melodies to the song, and more varied vocals as well, and tops of with a more technical touch on the music - which directly makes the whole album more interesting.

The album spans 52 minutes and contains ten songs but more than a fifth of the material comes from the concluding Storm The Beaches - a 11 1/2 minute long thematic song about wwii. Now I've often said that conceptual songs and albums are dangerous as many bands tend to forget about the fact that they're making music and focus too much on their theme and this is just a prime example of that. The lyrics leads the music and destroys it, frankly, with the improper vocal melodies to the melodies of the music. I think the fourth song on this album is better than, called Inside My Head. It's the first properly good song on the album but not the last. The title track follows and continues the undertaken style but I think the next song, which is the Hallowed Be Thy Name-inspired A Passed Life probably is the best on the album, not only the second longest with nearly seven minutes of music. As the band moves in to the second half (time wise) we have a pretty straight rock 'n' roll track in She's My Addiction before we head in to the final three songs where only Dark Passenger is worthy a mention, but I think Storm The Beaches would be a good song had it only had better vocal melodies (and vocals overall).

As I summarize the album to my self I think Fozzy has made a pretty good album, but the overall quality is just not high enough on it. It has some highs that raise the overall impression in 3-5 tracks something, but otherwise it doesn't do it for me. 'Sin And Bones' is okay, but not great.

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