Originally planned for release in April, Planet Zero was officially released on July 1. I’ve been cautiously looking forward to this album since the self-titled single was released in February.
I loved ATTENTION ATTENTION and The Sound of Madness, both are absolute 10s for me. Their other albums are not up to that level of perfection but have some great songs of their own.
Planet Zero is good. Really good. But it’s not as good as their best.
As has been written about ad nauseum, this is another concept/theme album this time with the theme being the COVID pandemic.
Musically this album is great. There is a good mix of hard-rocking songs and softer tunes. The guitar works is fabulous, the album has a great, thick, big sound. And Brent’s voice is like butter — so smooth.
I’m not a fan of all the interludes between many of the songs. They break the flow. I did end up making my own playlist of the album to remove the interludes. The album length is deceiving as it is 49 minutes with 20 tracks, but actually only has 13 songs totaling about 45 minutes when you remove the interludes.
I’m also not a fan of some of the lyrics which seem to use some right-wing catch phrases, but perhaps the band is going for some irony with them.
I saw Shinedown in concert earlier this year (my 3rd time) and they are just great. In the show they played Planet Zero, The Saints of Violence and Innuendo and Daylight, the three songs released before the album dropped and all fabulous.
As far as the other songs, Symptom of Being Human is touching and one of my favorites. No Sleep Tonight is hard-charging, loud and sounds huge. It’s one of their most aggressive songs ever and I love it!
The only song that doesn’t work for me is Army of the Underappreciated.
Overall, I really do like the album and have been listening to it a lot.
Hey Paul,
I'm brand new to substack, just finding my way around. Nice post, this is a band I knew nothing about (though it looks like they've been around a long time!) I write a music column too, so all but one of my subscriptions so far are music blogs. Yours was the first! Our point of overlap is a heavy dose of hard rock and metal. But most of the acts I write about are not from the US/UK axis, so they often take even seasoned rock fans by surprise. Would love it if you come over, check it out and decide to subscribe. I've been doing a series on a Japanese hard rock band that will be touring the U.S. in October, but there are 80+ other posts you can browse. Thanks and best!