Vicious (Halestorm Album)
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''Vicious'' is the fourth studio album by American
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Halestorm Halestorm is an American rock band from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Lzzy Hale, her drummer brother Arejay Hale, guitarist Joe Hottinger, and bassist Josh Smith. The group's self-titled debut album was re ...
. It was released on July 27, 2018 through
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
. Four singles were released, three of them having a music video. The video for the lead single "
Uncomfortable Comfort (or being comfortable'')'' is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship. Persons who are lacking in comfort are uncomfortable, or experiencing discomfort. A degree of psychological comfort c ...
" was directed by Evan Brace. The album peaked at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and topped both the US and UK Rock Albums charts.


Background and production

The American rock band
Halestorm Halestorm is an American rock band from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Lzzy Hale, her drummer brother Arejay Hale, guitarist Joe Hottinger, and bassist Josh Smith. The group's self-titled debut album was re ...
released their third studio album, ''
Into the Wild Life ''Into the Wild Life'' is the third studio album by American rock band Halestorm. It was scheduled for release on April 3, 2015, via Atlantic Records but due to unforeseen circumstances, it was pushed back by a week worldwide. The album was rele ...
'', on April 10, 2015. This was followed up with 2017's '' Reanimate 3.0: The Covers EP'', produced by
Nick Raskulinecz Nick Raskulinecz () (born February 4, 1970) is an American record producer. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Production career Raskulinecz is from the Bearden area of Knoxville, Tennessee. He first produced and recorded bands in Knoxville ...
. The band ended up discarding 15 songs, as frontwoman
Lzzy Hale Elizabeth Mae "Lzzy" Hale (born October 10, 1983) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of hard rock band Halestorm, which she co-founded with her brother Arejay Hale in 1997. Career Hale began writing and ...
became displeased with the material out of fear that she was "paying way too much attention to making everybody happy." The band reunited with Raskulinecz in
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
,
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
's Rock Falcon studio for what began as a series of live
jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...
s. By February 2018, Hale announced that the new album was "almost done," and that Halestorm had "about two or three weeks left of recording just to put the cherries on top."


Composition and lyrics

Lzzy Hale commented to
Blabbermouth.net Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was launched in March 2001; in Octob ...
: When discussing the album artwork with Sound Vapors, Joe Hottinger said:


Release and promotion

Halestorm announced the details of their new album, including the name, track list, and release date, on May 30, 2018. The announcement was accompanied by the album's first single, "
Uncomfortable Comfort (or being comfortable'')'' is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship. Persons who are lacking in comfort are uncomfortable, or experiencing discomfort. A degree of psychological comfort c ...
", and a music video directed by Evan Brace, who previously directed videos for
Phantogram Phantogram may refer to: *Phantogram (band) *Phantogram (optical illusion) Phantograms, also known as Phantaglyphs, Op-Ups, free-standing anaglyphs, levitated images, and book anaglyphs, are a form of optical illusion. Phantograms use perspectiv ...
and
Taking Back Sunday Taking Back Sunday is an American rock band from Long Island, New York. The band was formed by guitarist Eddie Reyes and bassist Jesse Lacey in 1999. The band's members currently are Adam Lazzara (lead vocals), John Nolan (lead guitar, keybo ...
. On June 22, the band released "Black Vultures." The last pre-album single, "Do Not Disturb," was released on July 20, a week before ''Vicious.'' The song was accompanied by a video directed by Robert Schober, also known as Roboshobo, who previously worked with
Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
,
Alice in Chains Alice in Chains (often abbreviated as AIC) is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1987 by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, who later recruited bassist Mike Starr and lead vocalist Layne ...
,
Mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...
,
Disturbed Disturbed may refer to: Books * ''Disturbed'', a 2011 novel by Kevin O'Brien (author) Film and TV * ''Disturbed'' (film), a 1990 film starring Malcolm McDowell * "Disturbed" (''Numb3rs''), a 2009 episode of ''Numb3rs'' * "The Disturbed", a 2 ...
, and
Green Day Green Day is an American rock band formed in the East Bay of California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, together with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt. For most of the band's career, they have been a powe ...
. To promote ''Vicious'', Halestorm went on tour with support from
In This Moment In This Moment is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed by singer Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth in 2005. They found drummer Jeff Fabb and started the band as Dying Star. Unhappy with their musical direction, they ...
and
New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...
, a decision that Lzzy Hale said was made because "It's important to realize that music is gender-less." Hottinger says, "We were told by the third show n the tourthat there were more females buying tickets than males, which in hard rock, we have never seen before."


Reception


Critical reception

''Vicious'' has received a score of 81 on
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
based on four reviews indicating "universal acclaim", making it the band's highest scoring album on the site. James Christopher Monger at
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
wrote that "The holy
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
trinity of sex, drugs, and rock & roll is alive and well -- but it connects on such a visceral and familiar level that listeners will likely be unable to resist the urge to turn things up to 11." Stephen Dalton of ''
Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
'' wrote, "Sounding at times like a fire-breathing she-dragon, Hale has a flair for lyrically deft rebel-girl songs that wear their feminist credentials lightly." Paul Davies of the ''
Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...
'' wrote, "There are more hooks, delicious vocals and musicianship here to reel in both avid fans and casual listeners.


Commercial performance

''Vicious'' debuted at number eight on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, recording 29,000
album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...
s in its first week. As of November 2021, the album has earned 140,000 equivalent album units in the US.


Accolades

''
Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...
'' included ''Vicious'' at number five on their year-end list of the "30 Best Hard Rock Albums of 2018." ''
Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
'' also put ''Vicious'' at number five on their list of the "50 Best Albums Of 2018." "Uncomfortable" was nominated for
Best Rock Performance The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for s ...
at the
2019 Grammy Awards The 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys hosted. During her opening monologue, Keys brought out Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and fo ...
, losing to
Chris Cornell Christopher John Cornell (né Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American singer and musician best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary lyricist and songwriter for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. H ...
's "When Bad Does Good."


Track listing

All tracks are produced by
Nick Raskulinecz Nick Raskulinecz () (born February 4, 1970) is an American record producer. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Production career Raskulinecz is from the Bearden area of Knoxville, Tennessee. He first produced and recorded bands in Knoxville ...
. Notes * Though listed as being recorded in Philadelphia, the track was actually recorded in
Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 2020 ...
.


Personnel


Halestorm

*
Lzzy Hale Elizabeth Mae "Lzzy" Hale (born October 10, 1983) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of hard rock band Halestorm, which she co-founded with her brother Arejay Hale in 1997. Career Hale began writing and ...
– vocals, guitar, piano, synths,
talk box A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the sou ...
on "Buzz" * Arejay Hale – drums, backing vocals * Joe Hottinger – lead guitar, backing vocals, synths * Josh Smith – bass guitar, piano, backing vocals, synths


Additional credits

* Suzi Akyuz – product manager * David Brown – guitar technician * Rock Falcon – drum technician * Jimmy Fontaine – photography *
Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...
– mastering * Nik Karpen – mixing assistance * Alex Kirzhner – creative direction and design * Jordan Logue – assistance *
Chris Lord-Alge Chris Lord-Alge is an American mix engineer. He is the brother of both Tom Lord-Alge and Jeff Lord-Alge, both of whom are also audio engineers. Chris and Tom are known for their abundant use of dynamic compression for molding mixes that play wel ...
– mixing * Brian Ranney – packaging manager *
Nick Raskulinecz Nick Raskulinecz () (born February 4, 1970) is an American record producer. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Production career Raskulinecz is from the Bearden area of Knoxville, Tennessee. He first produced and recorded bands in Knoxville ...
– producer *
Scott Stevens Ronald Scott Stevens (born April 1, 1964) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. As a defenseman, Stevens played 22 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Washington Capitals, St. Louis Blues and New Jersey ...
– additional production * Nathan Yarborough – engineering


Charts


''Stripped'' EP

Almost two years after the release of the album, the band debuted the ''Vicious (Stripped)'' EP for Record Store day 2020. The album features acoustic versions of four songs from the album as well as an acoustic version of "Chemicals", which was released as a non album promo single the previous year.


References

{{Authority control 2018 albums Halestorm albums Glam metal albums