House of Gold and Bones – Part 1

**The first half of Stone Sour’s new double concept album, _House of Gold & Bones_, comes as somewhat of a surprise package. Released during what has admittedly been a turbulent year for the rock music scene (with the cancellation of this year’s Sonisphere festival, not to mention the closing down of Roadrunner Records UK office), and following the inconsistent, occasionally dreary collection of songs that was 2010’s _Audio Secrecy_, apprehension towards the band’s latest offering is understandable. When the band announced that their new album would be a double, it would even have been easy to accuse them of selling out – just another post-grunge band going through the motions.**

From the opening bars of noisy, thrash-tinged opener ‘Gone Sovereign’, it’s plain to see that this Stone Sour have something else in store. This is a band beginning a fresh new chapter. The aforementioned opener flows into ‘Absolute Zero’, a rock club favourite in the making, with a seriously catchy vocal hook occluding a simple, yet effective hard rock riff. ‘A Rumor Of Skin’ starts off sounding seriously like something cut from Alice In Chains’ seminal 1992 grunge album _Dirt_, but slips into more familiar Stone Sour territory once the vocals kick in; namely, angsty yet melodic. The two-part ballad ‘The Travelers’ contains an interesting orchestral backing, although this element of the album’s sound is better used on the bittersweet ‘Tired’, which combines it with some wonderfully moody fretwork from guitarist Jim Root. In comparison, the mediocre ‘My Name Is Allen’, whilst similar, is uneventful. In stark contrast, ‘RU486’ offers more, with vocalist Corey Taylor raging in a way more reminiscent of his perhaps more notable band, Slipknot.

‘Taciturn’ is the album’s standard ballad, bearing resemblance to ‘Through Glass’ and ‘Bother’ from elsewhere in the band’s catalogue. Following in the same stead as those songs, it’s probably the biggest singalong on the record. Some electronic ambience segues the track into ‘Influence of a Drowsy God’, which builds and builds until it ascends into a wall of sound thicker than concrete. Dynamic closer ‘Last of the Real’ is another heavy one; its rhythm section bounces off of the full array of Taylor’s immense vocal range.

A deep, layered album if nothing else and a breath of new life for Stone Sour. Part 2 will be released next year and there will be undoubtedly more excitement to see what comes next.

**MP3:** ‘Absolute Zero’ **Similar To:** Alice In Chains, Slipknot.