There’s a moment halfway through “WATCH OUT!” where everything starts spinning. Not metaphorically, not musically, but viscerally. The chorus swirls in psychedelic loops around your head, mirroring the “spinning in a circle” lyric so literally, so perfectly, it’s as if the song physically shifts the air around you. That’s when I knew. This wasn’t just a band trying new things. This was a band that had finally arrived.
I’ve been rooting for Halestorm for a long time. I discovered them like many did, with “Miss the Misery” and “Love Bites” slamming out of my Guitar Hero playlist like sledgehammers with lipstick. But when I dove deeper into their albums, the high wore off quick. Those few explosive tracks were weighed down by mid-tempo ballads that felt more like ballast than highlights. And yet, I kept watching. Kept listening. I knew Lzzy had that voice, raw, explosive, uncompromising. And when I finally caught Halestorm live at Donauinselfest, I saw a band that was right on the edge of breaking through their own ceiling.
“Everest” is that breakthrough.
From the chugging, thrashy swagger of “Fallen Star” to the eerie, fragmented stomp of “Gather the Lambs”, this album moves. Not just in tempo, though it finally delivers the kind of dynamic pacing I’ve been craving, but in spirit. There’s grit under the nails and breath in the takes. You can hear the room. You can feel the eye contact between the bandmates. For an album that name-drops the world’s highest peak, it’s remarkably earthy.
The production leans organic and alive, like someone captured their rehearsal space on fire. The guitars are crisp but not sterile, the drums ring with just enough room tone, and the interplay between the musicians gives the whole thing a jam-session vibe. You know, the kind that’s rehearsed to the bone but still sounds like they might go off-script at any second. There’s weight here. Intent. Even the ballads, though a few still feel undercooked, don’t grind the momentum to a halt the way they once did. “Like a Woman Can” and “Shiver” breathe better. They know when to step back.
Lzzy Hale’s vocals remain the centerpiece, of course. Always have been. But here, she’s more textured, letting cracks show, leaning into imperfections when it serves the song. No need to prove she can out-sing the competition anymore. She is the competition. When she howls “I gave you everything” on the titular track, it lands not because it’s belted to the rafters, but because it’s truth. It’s worn. It’s earned.
There are a couple valleys along the way, “Darkness Always Wins” doesn’t quite land, and “I Gave You Everything” treads familiar, predictable ground, but even those feel more like pit stops than potholes. The band knows where they’re going. And more importantly, they know who they are.
This may very well be my favorite Halestorm album to date. Not because it’s perfect, but because it finally dares to be messy in the right ways. Because it captures the band I saw live, the one that flirted with chaos, that thrived in noise. “Everest” doesn’t reach for the summit, it builds its own.
“Everest” Tracklist:
- Fallen Star
- Everest
- Shiver
- Like A Woman Can
- Rain Your Blood On Me
- Darkness Always Wins
- Gather The Lambs
- WATCH OUT!
- Broken Doll
- K-I-L-L-I-N-G
- I Gave You Everything
- How Will You Remember Me?
