Hellyeah
Welcome Home

Hellyeah comes up with album number six, Welcome Home. It comes about a dozen years after the self titled debut album and three years after the latest one. It also arrives about a year after drummer and founding member Vinnie Paul’s untimely death, something that of course effects the band when their band brother passes, but Paul had finished all his drum tracks so he had left that for the band to finish according to guitarist Tom Maxwell. And finish it they did, according to new drummer Roy Mayorga it is a celebration of life and of Vinnie Paul, Guitarist Tom Maxwell believes Vinnie Paul would have been proud of Welcome Home. But will this new album welcome new fans or just appeal to the old?

In terms of style it is the same kind of groovy kind of metal as we heard before, the similar bands is a good reference as they sound pretty similar to those. Nothing really original about it and I would say that it sounds pretty much like last time I reviewed the band, their 2012 release Band of Brothers – nothing has really happened since then. Raspy vocals, chuggy riffs and things like that, decent production and relatively heavy – no surprises and pretty small variation over the tracks. It feels like a long album despite not really being that long, a bit more depth and variation would have been preferable.

I am not overly impressed with this album it is quite dull actually. It is kind of like the last time I wrote about them and as the band apparently were very pleased with that album there is a good chance that they are right that Paul would have been proud of this album. The band’s fans will most likely enjoy this album as it presses the same buttons as the previous albums, but isn’t repeating the same thing many a recipe for making tedious albums in the long run? That’s what I think anyway and I don’t think this album offers anything fresh or exciting, and it doesn’t have any tracks that feel like distinct hit songs that could capture an audience.

It may not be a bad album as it is well made by a skilled set of musicians, but it has nothing that makes it stand out. It lacks originality and the vocals are pretty boring. It feels like it is an album for those that are already fans and I doubt that it will attract many new fans; it isn’t exciting enough for that. It is almost like it was deliberately kept inside the box like painting inside the lines in a colouring book or something. The result is adequate but not very exciting, but at least the fans will probably feel welcome.

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