Metalcore has been so much fun, hasn't it? A stripping back of heavy metal clichés, a return to a garage, DIY aesthetic without losing mainstream radio appeal? But there are only so many years an idea can run before it develops clichés of its own. Any band in the modern scene must ask themselves the existential question: "What do we bring to the table?"
All Hail the Yeti bring an amazing name, so there's that. They also bring some whiskey-drenched songs like "Highway Crosses" that might as well come with their own Pantera patches and Harley-Davidsons. It's great fun, mostly (although "Seymour Avenue" is an extremely distasteful chronicle of the still-recent Ariel Castro kidnappings).
But when they are in a pinch, the band keep falling back onto old ideas, especially in the lyric department. "The Nuclear Dust," "World Is Cold" and "Live Everyday" sound like sound like half the beatdown tracks released in the last 15 years, and comparisons to "like-minded spiritual shamans Eyehategod" are total hogwash. All Hail the Yeti are much closer to the feel-good vibe of Volbeat or Godsmack, "Seymore Avenue" notwithstanding.
That's the central issue; All Hail the Yeti are being pulled apart in different directions. Sometimes they want to be a SiriusXM-friendly modern metal act, and other times they want to be a distorted sludge act from the grimy depths of the underground. If they don't pick a path, they'll probably just end up alienating both audiences.
(Minus Head)All Hail the Yeti bring an amazing name, so there's that. They also bring some whiskey-drenched songs like "Highway Crosses" that might as well come with their own Pantera patches and Harley-Davidsons. It's great fun, mostly (although "Seymour Avenue" is an extremely distasteful chronicle of the still-recent Ariel Castro kidnappings).
But when they are in a pinch, the band keep falling back onto old ideas, especially in the lyric department. "The Nuclear Dust," "World Is Cold" and "Live Everyday" sound like sound like half the beatdown tracks released in the last 15 years, and comparisons to "like-minded spiritual shamans Eyehategod" are total hogwash. All Hail the Yeti are much closer to the feel-good vibe of Volbeat or Godsmack, "Seymore Avenue" notwithstanding.
That's the central issue; All Hail the Yeti are being pulled apart in different directions. Sometimes they want to be a SiriusXM-friendly modern metal act, and other times they want to be a distorted sludge act from the grimy depths of the underground. If they don't pick a path, they'll probably just end up alienating both audiences.