Stone Sour is a band I've felt conflicted with. The lead singer (Corey Taylor) is in a band called slipknot which is a metal band. You might recognize Slipknot from their use of masks while on stage. The reason I've felt conflicted with Stone Sour is I've kinda always expected them to be a metal band. When I first heard them back in 2002 the song that they started out with was "Get Inside" which is a pretty heavy stinking song. Coming from Slipknot it was safe to assume that they would be super heavy. Well that didn't happen, in fact the opposite of that happened. We got an album of mellow tracks that were good, but just not what I or I think anyone was expecting. So secretly since then I think the metal community and really anyone who knows Slipknot just expected them to get heavier with their next release. That didn't happen. "Come What(ever) May" was dropped in 2006 and it was full of disappointing pop tracks. So I didn't have high expectations for "Audio Secrecy".
I think something changed in the 4 years since Come What(ever) was released. When I heard the single "Say You'll Haunt Me" I was pleasantly surprised with the direction the band went in. I didn't expect heavy and I didn't get heavy and for the first time, I was OK with it. With this new found understanding of Taylors vision, would it help me to like the new material? Well in a word, "No".
My opinion of this album has actually changed from listening to it more and more. Some of these songs are downright awful. Corey Taylors voice is wasted on this material. The funny thing about it all is the songs that aren't very good are the heavier songs. They seem silly and cheap, like they were all trying way too hard to make something brutal. It just fails to really give you that power you get out of good heavy music. Unfortunately Audio Secrecy is primarily made up of these sub par "heavy" songs.
On the other hand the slower paced songs such as "Say You'll Haunt Me" and "Hesitate" really accent the album really well. Also the bluesy "Miracles" stands out in this sea of mediocrity. I think had it not been for the lyrical content of the song "Pieces" it would be a great example of the kinda stuff that Stone Sour should stick too.
What it boils down to is this album isn't very good. There are good tracks, but not enough to keep you coming back. If you enjoy stuff like Godsmack or Staind you could most likely find some security in these songs. If you actually enjoy music at all, you'll stay away.
I give Audio Secrecy 1.5 scary masks out of 5
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