Hail to the King | Fall From Grace
Introduction
Oh boy. The one you've been waiting for. The album I have shown nothing but absolute hatred for. Hail to the King.
So it seems like with all the touring with Metallica after Nightmare they decided to just be Metallica? Actually, let me back up from that. In order to really give this monolith of a review context, I need to get a bit personal.
History
I grew up on Metallica and Megadeth. Metal was always my thing, and so it became a part of me. It's not just a hobby, it's part of my soul. It's why I get so passionate about metal remaining metal, and why I despise Nu Metal and Modern Metalcore so much. But more than anything, I hold the most respect for the architects of metal. Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, the Big Four, even hard rock bands like AC/DC and Guns n' Roses. Even though I don't particularly like the latter two, I respect them, and that's an important distinction to make. Liking something vs respecting something. Keep that in mind.
But by my teenage years and the early 2000s, metal was kinda, well, dead. No, it was all about punk for me. Rise Against was just starting up with off-tempo fast-paced hardcore. Biohazard was making great stuff. Project 86 was constantly on my playlists. But above all else for me was the growing Metallic Hardcore genre. Ever since Destroy The Machines in '95 I was hooked. Hearts Once Nourished With Hope and Compassion is still a contender for my favorite album of all time. But what you have to understand about Metallic Hardcore was that it was just that, Hardcore with elements of metal. Metal itself was stuck in an awkward phase where everything in America basically sucked (Nu Metal) and the only good stuff was coming out of Scandinavia. Even then Dark Tranquillity and Soilwork and In Flames were going through awkward phases themselves. And the only metal band I was regularly listening to was Arch Enemy. Then we come to Christmas 2001. My best friend gave me a CD with a bunch of new Metallic Hardcore stuff from that year and the year before. Most of it was basically what I was already into. Poison the Well, Hatebreed, Converge. But there were two songs that stuck out. One of them was "Vide Infra" by Killswitch Engage, which was a good callback to Slaughter of the Soul days. But there was another. A song that started off with blistering drums and brutal vocals, that had a melodic chorus, that mixed in elements of thrash with the metallic hardcore and melodeath. That song was "We Come Out At Night".
Keep something in mind, at that point I didn't know that kind of even mix of Metal and Hardcore was a thing. I hadn't managed to get around to bands I heard of like Shadows Fall or Heaven Shall Burn yet, I hadn't even heard of Killswitch Engage or Unearth. So STST was a revelation for me, one that reignited my interest in more Metal-based music. And Waking the Fallen, well that just firmly killed my obsession with punk and reinstated Metal as king in my heart. Which was a good thing, because Metal started to make a comeback. Converge's Jane Doe was basically the perfect regular Metallic Hardcore album, so that genre kinda died out. Only to be replaced with Melodic Metalcore, a genre that finally got Metal out of the early 2000s slump. We got A7X, Trivium, AILD, and KSE all making fantastic stuff for a few years. And old Metal came back even better as well. In Flames had a three-album string of masterpieces from 2002 to 2006, Dark Tranquillity made their magnum opus' with Character and Fiction, Megadeth and Slayer and Death Angel all came back strong. And yeah, I know STST didn't make that happen, but it was the album I needed to be ready for that. And A7X was the band leading modern metal. Even when I disliked the S/T and DITR, I still respected them. Then everything changed.
After Nightmare, things got strange. They released a great new track in "Not Ready To Die". But also they kept saying that the WTF-style approach there was just for that song. No, the next new album was going to be a "tribute" album. And honestly, I was hyped. I love Classic Metal, so I could just imagine how cool it would be to hear A7X-ified takes on Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden styles. Not specific songs, but styles. But then "Carry On" came out, and suddenly I understood what they meant by "tribute". Carry On, pretty cool song right? Good chorus melody, kickin' drums, good pace. One problem. Helloween made the song in 1987. "Carry On" is just "Eagle Fly Free". But watered down and overproduced for mainstream radio audiences. And much to my dismay, it only got worse. "Hail to the King" was just "Thunderstuck" at a slightly different tempo, "This Means War" speaks for itself, "Doing Time" is literally "It's So Easy". HTTK is an album split in thirds. One third is actually creative stuff. One third is boring as sin. And one third is just ripped off songs from other bands.
And I do want to state that there is in fact a difference between a tribute and a ripoff. Buried Alive is a tribute. It's clearly inspired by the likes of "Fade To Black", but it's got a certain A7X-ness to it and it doesn't resemble one specific Metallica ballad. Even "One", it's main inspiration (Even though I honestly find it closer to "Sanitarium") doesn't really feel like the same song. On the other hand, "This Means War" may as well be the Weird Al cover of "Sad But True". It's blatant, and yet disrespectful. I'm being sold a tribute, as in a new song meant to show inspiration from an old band. Not an old song just slightly changed. That's a ripoff. And that's what makes HTTK different from S/T and DITR. Because honestly I would probably like HTTK more than those if it was my only exposure to those songs, if I didn't have the context of being raised on rock and metal. But once I realized that they were ripoffs, one thing would remain the same to how I feel now. S/T is an album I dislike but I do respect. I do not respect HTTK. It is uncreative, sterile, manufactured for the radio, and it left me feeling something that I hadn't felt with an album since I heard Swansong. I felt betrayed. So without further ado, this is Hail to the King.
But by my teenage years and the early 2000s, metal was kinda, well, dead. No, it was all about punk for me. Rise Against was just starting up with off-tempo fast-paced hardcore. Biohazard was making great stuff. Project 86 was constantly on my playlists. But above all else for me was the growing Metallic Hardcore genre. Ever since Destroy The Machines in '95 I was hooked. Hearts Once Nourished With Hope and Compassion is still a contender for my favorite album of all time. But what you have to understand about Metallic Hardcore was that it was just that, Hardcore with elements of metal. Metal itself was stuck in an awkward phase where everything in America basically sucked (Nu Metal) and the only good stuff was coming out of Scandinavia. Even then Dark Tranquillity and Soilwork and In Flames were going through awkward phases themselves. And the only metal band I was regularly listening to was Arch Enemy. Then we come to Christmas 2001. My best friend gave me a CD with a bunch of new Metallic Hardcore stuff from that year and the year before. Most of it was basically what I was already into. Poison the Well, Hatebreed, Converge. But there were two songs that stuck out. One of them was "Vide Infra" by Killswitch Engage, which was a good callback to Slaughter of the Soul days. But there was another. A song that started off with blistering drums and brutal vocals, that had a melodic chorus, that mixed in elements of thrash with the metallic hardcore and melodeath. That song was "We Come Out At Night".
Keep something in mind, at that point I didn't know that kind of even mix of Metal and Hardcore was a thing. I hadn't managed to get around to bands I heard of like Shadows Fall or Heaven Shall Burn yet, I hadn't even heard of Killswitch Engage or Unearth. So STST was a revelation for me, one that reignited my interest in more Metal-based music. And Waking the Fallen, well that just firmly killed my obsession with punk and reinstated Metal as king in my heart. Which was a good thing, because Metal started to make a comeback. Converge's Jane Doe was basically the perfect regular Metallic Hardcore album, so that genre kinda died out. Only to be replaced with Melodic Metalcore, a genre that finally got Metal out of the early 2000s slump. We got A7X, Trivium, AILD, and KSE all making fantastic stuff for a few years. And old Metal came back even better as well. In Flames had a three-album string of masterpieces from 2002 to 2006, Dark Tranquillity made their magnum opus' with Character and Fiction, Megadeth and Slayer and Death Angel all came back strong. And yeah, I know STST didn't make that happen, but it was the album I needed to be ready for that. And A7X was the band leading modern metal. Even when I disliked the S/T and DITR, I still respected them. Then everything changed.
After Nightmare, things got strange. They released a great new track in "Not Ready To Die". But also they kept saying that the WTF-style approach there was just for that song. No, the next new album was going to be a "tribute" album. And honestly, I was hyped. I love Classic Metal, so I could just imagine how cool it would be to hear A7X-ified takes on Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden styles. Not specific songs, but styles. But then "Carry On" came out, and suddenly I understood what they meant by "tribute". Carry On, pretty cool song right? Good chorus melody, kickin' drums, good pace. One problem. Helloween made the song in 1987. "Carry On" is just "Eagle Fly Free". But watered down and overproduced for mainstream radio audiences. And much to my dismay, it only got worse. "Hail to the King" was just "Thunderstuck" at a slightly different tempo, "This Means War" speaks for itself, "Doing Time" is literally "It's So Easy". HTTK is an album split in thirds. One third is actually creative stuff. One third is boring as sin. And one third is just ripped off songs from other bands.
And I do want to state that there is in fact a difference between a tribute and a ripoff. Buried Alive is a tribute. It's clearly inspired by the likes of "Fade To Black", but it's got a certain A7X-ness to it and it doesn't resemble one specific Metallica ballad. Even "One", it's main inspiration (Even though I honestly find it closer to "Sanitarium") doesn't really feel like the same song. On the other hand, "This Means War" may as well be the Weird Al cover of "Sad But True". It's blatant, and yet disrespectful. I'm being sold a tribute, as in a new song meant to show inspiration from an old band. Not an old song just slightly changed. That's a ripoff. And that's what makes HTTK different from S/T and DITR. Because honestly I would probably like HTTK more than those if it was my only exposure to those songs, if I didn't have the context of being raised on rock and metal. But once I realized that they were ripoffs, one thing would remain the same to how I feel now. S/T is an album I dislike but I do respect. I do not respect HTTK. It is uncreative, sterile, manufactured for the radio, and it left me feeling something that I hadn't felt with an album since I heard Swansong. I felt betrayed. So without further ado, this is Hail to the King.
Analysis
The drums. Suck. I don't blame Arin entirely (Though his stuff in other bands isn't much better honestly. He's not a saint people), since the band did tell him to play a certain way. And by that they told him, "you know how much people hate Lars for being so simple and repetitive? You're gonna be even MORE simple and repetitive". Of all the things to copy from Metallica, why the drums, the one thing people can't stand about Metallica?! The bass guitar is, well, not very audible which is infuriating after how good Nightmare's bass was. But it's fine. That said, for as much as this album tries to be like older bands, those older bands had more prominent bass guitar and more complex bass guitar like that. And Johnny can do that, he just didn't for some reason. Keep this argument in mind.
They made a really big point of this album being riff-focused. Which I like. But the riffs are generic. Which sucks. Yeah, again for whatever reason the riffs are either ripped off or are incredibly generic hard rock riffs. Zacky can do better, so why doesn't he? As for lead guitar, when Syn goes for it, it's y'know good and all. But again, the solos feel rather bland and uninspired compared to the craziness Syn can do. Or hell, compared to the craziness most of the bands they're "tributing" can do. The one diamond in here though is Matt's vocals. Easily his best since WTF. They're aggressive, gritty, even Thrashy in some ways. It makes me wish the album was more fast paced and Thrash Metal inspired than it actually is. And then there's the production. It's pretty good, got a lot of dynamic range, very clear and everything. But with the old school style songs, why didn't they go for the old school style of production? Iron Maiden's prominent bass sound, Metallica's reverb, Megadeth's organic drum sound (Before the awful 2004 remasters ruined that of course), Black Sabbath's evil riff sound. If you're gonna do a tribute and the songs are already practically covers, go all the way.
Ugh, this is already exhausting me.
Track by Track
If I can give the album one thing, it certainly makes a better first impression from the get-go than Nightmare did. Where that album opened with an overly cheesy song and took until "Danger Line" to find it's sense of dark melody, "Shepherd of Fire" begins the album right. Ominous opening, followed by a very strong riff and one of Matt's most savage vocal attacks of the 2010s. The only problem? The song is very much an "Enter Sandman" clone. They even have the whole soft spoken part before final chorus thing. Fortunately "Shepherd of Fire" in my opinion comes out better than the track that inspired it, I never liked Sandman personally. But it doesn't set the best precedent. "Hail to the King" is a boring radio rock track that is way too close to AC/DC for it's own good. And AC/DC is already a band that reuses the same riff structure over and over. The song is basically just "Thunderstruck" at the tempo of "Hell's Bells". And it's a shame because there is good to the song. The lyrics are pretty cool, and the acoustic version I find is one of the better soft A7X tracks in existence. It's a shame the album version is just so... sterile. "Doing Time" fares even worse. It's a bland copy of "It's So Easy", a song I already thought was unmemorable and uninteresting to begin with.
And then "This Means War" happens. This song is a microcosm of HTTK as an album. It is a by-the-numbers, watered down, repetitive take on "Sad But True", a song that already had a lot of repetition built in. There's no variation, no crazy song structure, nothing. What happened to the A7X that made "Second Heartbeat" and "Betrayed" and "Dancing Dead" and "God Hates Us"? What is this formulaic garbage? And trust me, this issue started back in the Self-Titled days, but it got 10x worse on HTTK and IMO was at absolute worst on The Stage (Admittedly that's moreso because the proggy style of that album seems to make the lack of complex structures more disappointing) Why does every song have to be verse-chorus over and over.
But then something happens. "Requiem" appears out of nowhere to salvage this album. Beginning with an evil chant and breaking out to one of the best riffs on the album. And the best part? It actually is a tribute. The riff is clearly inspired by Black Sabbath, but it's not a carbon copy of any one song. It's just an awesome song, with a distinctive A7X feel to it. The whole album should've been like this. Shame it's followed by "Crimson Day". A ballad. I think I complained enough about how sick of ballads I am in the last review. So all I'll say is that the opening guitar part is basically just "Nothing Else Matters", and that's the only notable thing about the song. It's just boring. And it's followed by "Symphony of Destru-" I mean "Heretic". It's "Symphony of Destruction", which granted is the best song they ripped off, but it's still so clear. Hell, I can even imagine the Symphony lyrics over this chorus melody which is also very clearly "Worlds Apart" by Journey. It's an okay song and it does a better job of applying an A7X feel over an old song than others on this album do, but it's still a retread of a song I think was much better in 1992. Plus, there are better Megadeth songs to ripoff. Why not copy "Hanger 18" instead?
Then we get to hands down the best song on the album, and the best actual tribute. "Coming Home" is an absolutely fantastic song. Using Iron Maiden as a base, Zacky and Syn apply their trademark styles over it, and Matt's vocals shine here. This is one of his greatest vocal performances. The only downside is that the bass should be more prominent if they really wanted to pay respects to our lord and savior Steve Harris. "Planets" then shoots that momentum in the foot with a formulaic hard rock song with some tinge of prog in there, though unfortunately not enough for it's own good. You'd think a song about Planets colliding would be super chaotic and violent, but it's actually one of the more restrained tracks on the album. It does have some good drum parts and an okay riff though. "Acid Rain" is the final track and it's a ballad. You really shouldn't end an album on a ballad IMO. End an album with the heaviest track you got, or the most complex. Rain hits neither of those. Luckily it is a piano ballad rather than a clean/acoustic guitar one, making it stand out more. It is unfortunately nowhere close to the excellence of "Fiction", though it does have Matt's incredible vocals salvaging it from being truly boring.or bad. It's good, but not great. The song also ends very strange. There's a part that feels like a lesser version of the end of "Danger Line", followed by you guessed it, NOVEMBER RAIN REHASHING. Because this album didn't ripoff other songs enough apparently. The finale is just "November Rain", but ironically less heavy. And then it ends on... storm sounds. Like the ones from the beginning of "To End The Rapture". As if this is supposed to be some weird bookend of a saga of A7X or something, and in that case... no I don't like that. If this was how A7X ended, they'd die in a sea of ridicule and boredom.
Track Ranking:
And then "This Means War" happens. This song is a microcosm of HTTK as an album. It is a by-the-numbers, watered down, repetitive take on "Sad But True", a song that already had a lot of repetition built in. There's no variation, no crazy song structure, nothing. What happened to the A7X that made "Second Heartbeat" and "Betrayed" and "Dancing Dead" and "God Hates Us"? What is this formulaic garbage? And trust me, this issue started back in the Self-Titled days, but it got 10x worse on HTTK and IMO was at absolute worst on The Stage (Admittedly that's moreso because the proggy style of that album seems to make the lack of complex structures more disappointing) Why does every song have to be verse-chorus over and over.
But then something happens. "Requiem" appears out of nowhere to salvage this album. Beginning with an evil chant and breaking out to one of the best riffs on the album. And the best part? It actually is a tribute. The riff is clearly inspired by Black Sabbath, but it's not a carbon copy of any one song. It's just an awesome song, with a distinctive A7X feel to it. The whole album should've been like this. Shame it's followed by "Crimson Day". A ballad. I think I complained enough about how sick of ballads I am in the last review. So all I'll say is that the opening guitar part is basically just "Nothing Else Matters", and that's the only notable thing about the song. It's just boring. And it's followed by "Symphony of Destru-" I mean "Heretic". It's "Symphony of Destruction", which granted is the best song they ripped off, but it's still so clear. Hell, I can even imagine the Symphony lyrics over this chorus melody which is also very clearly "Worlds Apart" by Journey. It's an okay song and it does a better job of applying an A7X feel over an old song than others on this album do, but it's still a retread of a song I think was much better in 1992. Plus, there are better Megadeth songs to ripoff. Why not copy "Hanger 18" instead?
Then we get to hands down the best song on the album, and the best actual tribute. "Coming Home" is an absolutely fantastic song. Using Iron Maiden as a base, Zacky and Syn apply their trademark styles over it, and Matt's vocals shine here. This is one of his greatest vocal performances. The only downside is that the bass should be more prominent if they really wanted to pay respects to our lord and savior Steve Harris. "Planets" then shoots that momentum in the foot with a formulaic hard rock song with some tinge of prog in there, though unfortunately not enough for it's own good. You'd think a song about Planets colliding would be super chaotic and violent, but it's actually one of the more restrained tracks on the album. It does have some good drum parts and an okay riff though. "Acid Rain" is the final track and it's a ballad. You really shouldn't end an album on a ballad IMO. End an album with the heaviest track you got, or the most complex. Rain hits neither of those. Luckily it is a piano ballad rather than a clean/acoustic guitar one, making it stand out more. It is unfortunately nowhere close to the excellence of "Fiction", though it does have Matt's incredible vocals salvaging it from being truly boring.or bad. It's good, but not great. The song also ends very strange. There's a part that feels like a lesser version of the end of "Danger Line", followed by you guessed it, NOVEMBER RAIN REHASHING. Because this album didn't ripoff other songs enough apparently. The finale is just "November Rain", but ironically less heavy. And then it ends on... storm sounds. Like the ones from the beginning of "To End The Rapture". As if this is supposed to be some weird bookend of a saga of A7X or something, and in that case... no I don't like that. If this was how A7X ended, they'd die in a sea of ridicule and boredom.
Track Ranking:
- Coming Home
- Requiem
- Shepherd of Fire
- Heretic
- Planets
- Acid Rain
- Hail to the King
- Doing Time
- Crimson Day
- This Means War
Conclusion
I think it's pretty clear how I feel about this album. It's bland, uncreative, and boring. It has no original ideas in its DNA. This sounds like the mediocre debut album for a tribute band, not the 6th/7th album by a band known for creativity and innovation. From the band that helped invent the genre of Melodic Metalcore to a band that just copied other songs. Worth no more respect than the bands that ripped off A7X in the late 2000s. And I'm not gonna cut slack for the emotional place the band was in. I can't. When Cliff died, Metallica made ...And Justice For All. By no means a perfect album, but one with spirit and creativity poured into it. HTTK has nothing on it. As an A7X album it fails to feel like them. As a tribute album it fails to really understand what made the bands it's tributing so great. And as a metal album it is far too sterile and radio-ized. A 4/10 album. Higher than a Lulu 2/10, but less than a ReLoad 5/10. Yeah, even ReLoad earns more respect from me, and that album sucks.
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