CD REVIEW: Stone Sour – Meanwhile in Burbank EP

Shane | 22 May 2015 | Reply

CD REVIEW: Stone Sour – Meanwhile in Burbank EP
Roadrunner
18 April, 2015
Reviewed by Shayne McGowan

7/10

Following their exceptional House of Gold and Bones albums was always going to be hard for Stone Sour, so releasing a cover EP might have been a pretty smart option for them. It doesn’t have to live up to the last release, and their next album is going to be better than it..

That’s not to say that Meanwhile in Burbank is not good. It is quite enjoyable. They have made good choices as far as the songs that they cover. Alice in Chains, Sabbath, Priest, Metallica and KISS songs are all represented here, and the influence of those five bands has been pretty evident on Stone Sour already, so why not cover them.

The covers are played pretty straight. The band doesn’t attempt to make the songs their own, which is a good thing. These particular songs are far too ingrained into the hearts of rock and metal fans, and to change them up at all, would have caused uproar.

Of course, they could have chosen deeper cuts, and made the songs their own, but in the end I personally think they chose well, and played the songs very well, particularly on Love Gun and Children of the Grave.

Cover albums are a bit of a double edged sword for bands in my mind. You are simply never going to please everybody, so you might as well just please yourself. That’s what Stone Sour seem to have done, and more power to them.

Apparently there are 2 more volumes of Meanwhile in Burbank on the way, and I look forward to hearing whether they challenge themselves with a few “outside of the box” covers next time.