Shinedown - Amaryllis

This is a flashback review of the 2012 album Amaryllis by Shinedown. It's a flashback review because even though Shinedown have been around since 2001; It feels like I have been living under a rock for the last 17 years as they have only come to my attention in the last few months or so.  But I have listened to this album enough now and it deserves a review.

This was very much a transition album for the band in terms of their sound. Before this album they were very much in the classic rock category and there are many songs in this album which still fall into that category. I will start with what I think is not just the best track on the album but out of all the stuff they have released up to 2018 and that is title "Amaryllis".  It is the perfect rock song. The soaring vocals, the nice wee guitar solo even has some violin which adds so much to a very moving song. This is followed on the album by another cracking track "Unity" which although lives slightly in it's shadows is still a great song and is quite similar in ways to the title track.

When I talk about this being a transition album, the one track which really sticks out compared to anything they have done previously and what they went on to do in "Threat to Survial" and the upcoming "Attention, Attention" album is "Enemies". This is such an aggressive, really shouty, beast of a track.  The video for this is quite funny as the four of them are sitting down facing each other in a band meeting. Basically end up beating each other up.

I would say this is the most complete album I've heard so far from Shinedown and that is saying something as I do rate all the albums highly. But because of the transition there are different sounding songs on this album to give it balance and variety.  There is the heavier, rocktastic "Nowhere kids" to the fantastic piano driven power ballad "Follow you" which also has a fantastic solo in it.  They really do have it all and I have no idea how the seemed to have kept producing so many great tracks over the years.  Another track worthy of a mention is "Miracle" but as I say this album from start to finish is brilliant.

Overall I would thouroughly recommend this album. They have built up some back catalogue now which I am gradually working my way through. At this point I have just reviewed "Threat to Survial" and this one and I would say this is better. Although "Threat to Survial" along with the other albums are worth checking out too.