FRAMEmusic

It’s been four long years, but the American hard rock band from Las Vegas, Otherwise have returned with their sixth studio album, their second on Mascot records. With their previous album Defy being released in 2019.

I won’t lie, I decided to listen to this album for the first time in the gym during leg day as the ultimate hard rock test, can it get my blood pumping? Can it actually bring me the badass energy I need to get me through this leg day, when I listen to an album I want it to make me feel something and I want it to bring my imagination to life. Safe to say it did exactly what I wanted.

Full Disclosure is one hell of an opening track, blood starts to pump with the intro vocals and subtle countdown drum beats, the bass line bringing the tempo up with a slight pause, the breakdown hits, and you feel your entire body being brought to life in an instant. Straight away the vocals have a hard country rock vibe, with a tinge of edge that straight away tells you that this band is going to tell some people where to go. The rasp when it comes to breakdowns and hitting the high notes, is done beautifully, this is a badass leg day anthem. This is what you need as a motivational tool. 10/10

Exit Wound has a different vibe, the tempo is high. Perfect for your rest in between sets. Eyes closed as you listen to the deep felt lyrics, take a deep breath and take every single word in. The fast pace guitar riffs get your head shaking and your body moving, you still have that energy inside of you. When the guitars calm down and it’s just vocals, that’s the breather moment, that’s the moment when the memories flood in, it’s the positive weakness moments. You can hear the pain and motivation in the vocals but also the sheer amount of frustration. Everything is perfectly put together in this track, the frustration but the energy, you could mistake it for a positive song for a second before you realise the true meaning. 8/10

New Way To Hate is safe explanatory with the title really, immediately we’re hit with a hard breakdown. This is a huge f-you to the organisations, to the terrible parts of the world that exist. It’s at this point on the album that I get a country Fever 333 feel to everything and I won’t lie, having Jason Butler on an Otherwisetrack would be insane . . . but in the best way! Heavy vocals thrown in, adds to the meaning behind the song, it adds to the title. This is a track to play in a rage room, when you’re hitting your PR in the gym, or at any random point where you need to let out that lasting bit of frustration. 9/10

Failure – You know when someone higher up says something you hear a billion times every day and it just gets boring, and that saying becomes childish and annoying? The intro having children singing “Failure is not an option” just fit into the song so perfectly well. It’s like it has an ironic feel to it, but also having a form of true meaning behind it especially when we go into the mention of people sitting back and not doing anything to help make a change. You can feel the demand in the instrumental and the vocals, the need for people to not die for nothing and to stand up and take a stand for change, and not let evil win. An inspirational song, with the anger needed. I can see fists being in the air when this gets played live already, this is an anthem for sure. 9/10

Coffins – A different feel now, we have a smooth backing track, with a hint of rap being brought in, which is giving more Fever 333 now I’m hearing this one. One thing that’s becoming clear is that this album is a massive hate for the organisations that run America records, not something new from a hard rock band really. Everything is smooth and softer until you reach a bid way and are thrown into an insane breakdown, rough growly vocals back into energetic cleans. This is an inspirational song but is the weakest one on the album. 6/10

Hollywood Minute – We’re in the hip shaking track now, the beat with the guitars and bass line makes you want to shake your hips around, bop your head along with the metalhead chug face. The best way I can describe the feeling of this song, is you’re on top of a hill with your arms stretched out wide and you’re soaking everything in, with memories hitting of the struggling times when it hits into the hard breakdowns. I have this light-hearted feel to the song when it hits the chorus, everything just feels light and happy. 7/10

Gawdzillionaire – It’s the name of the album and for a quick second I thought my phone had switched to Come and Get It  – I Prevailbased on the war sirens being played at the start of the track. But it’s very different from I Prevail. This being the first track on the album with a feature, this being Ekoh throwing in the rap verses, slowing down the song shortly before a heavy bass line is thrown in with a gang chant of GAWDZILLIONAIRE. 6/10

La Familia – No this isn’t a track from What We Do in The Shadows, but it’s bringing me back to mid-2000’s hard rock. It’s beautiful in terms of the vocals and how everything is mixed, it’s like this track has taken me back in time, and I can see the low budget green screen music video (just a suggestion that this should be the music video for this song), with slow motion montages. I have way too much energy listening to this despite how sad the lyrics are, it touches your heart deeply and makes you feel every emotion but at the same time you can’t help but move with the guitar riffs. 9/10

Paradise – With a feature from Heidi Shephard,this track has a lot of emotion coming from both vocalists, the bass line taking everything high to low in a gorgeous transition, adding a satisfying feel as the chorus hits. This is a mosh pit opener for sure, a fist pumper and a track many metalheads are going to be screaming from the top of their lungs. 8/10

Exorcism – Instantly you know what this song is about, drug use and poor treatments. This song is full of pain and a feeling of need and anger. The frustration of losing yourself or someone else losing themselves, witnessing this torture. Again, the metalhead chug face of appreciation comes with this track as well, and through most of this album. When the track slows down, it brings you into a Tim Burton kind of land, like your being led to a downward spiral by one of his characters, before being tossed into the spiral and watching life wither away as the addiction grows. 8/10

Camouflage – The final two tracks of the album, to wrap the entire experience up have the final upbeat feel, with a sense of euphoria thrown in parts of the tracks. Again, this is a hard rock album but it has aspects that make it a very dancy album too. You can headbang to it but best believe you’d see me doing some random dance moves to it, because it’s just easily done. 7/10

No Rain – It’s the final track of the album, it starts off slow with a backing track building the tension, just vocals needed to carry. Then we get thrown into what I can only describe as Pirate Metal, I felt like I had just gotten on board a pirate ship, which is the last thing I expected from any of this based on the previous tracks. This is the perfect “end of show” (before encore) song. Vocals are welcomed with the rest of the band joining in, from the sound of the song I can tell everyone loved making this song. It wouldn’t shock me if this is the band’s favourite track on the album, because it’s so different compared to the rest and they just sound like they’re loving life on it. 8/10

As an overall conclusion to this album, it’s a solid banger without a doubt. There is not one track on the album that’s bad in the slightest, yeah there’s some that are weaker than others but they’re not ‘weak songs’ in the slightest. Every single song had its own unique difference thrown in, shocking me at times. Overall, this is an incredible album, and will we hear this live? Who knows, but we need to have this done, I want to see if I was right on the predicted mosh pit songs.

Overall rating: 9/10

Album Review by: Lauren Allard