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Halestorm’s albums sound like a beast stuck in a cage. Since finding success in the early 2010s the Pennsylvania band have earned a reputation for high-octane, anything-can-happen live shows, fuelled by the chemistry between singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale, her drummer brother Arejay and a line-up that’s gone unchanged for 21 years.
Their records have struggled to convey the same fire, however, with 2015’s Into The Wild Life especially feeling more sterile than a surgical suite. After previous album Back From The Dead showed some traces of the band’s on-stage verve, sprinting through 37 minutes of metal, Everest sees them finally scale the summit. And all it took was everything being changed. For the first time, Halestorm were produced by country connoisseur Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton etc), and they took nothing into the studio except their instruments.
That improvisational spirit quickly rears its head. ‘Ha ha! Kick it!’ Lzzy cackles during opener Fallen Star, before she and fellow guitarist Joe Hottinger dive into one of the loudest, grooviest riffs they’ve ever uncorked. It flaunts the same volume as their guitar tones on tour, and the album is packed with that kind of arena-sized intensity, from I Gave You Everything’s squealing leads to the piercing shouts of feminist anthem Watch Out!.
Obsession with the live environment is even more obvious on lead single Darkness Always Wins. ‘We’re fighters, holding up our lighters!’ Lzzy declares, calling for audience participation with all the stealth of an ‘applause’ sign. Similarly, the refrain in K-I-L-L-I-N-G does everything but beg for some spell-along chanting to kick off.
Between those appeals, Lzzy’s lyrics bare her fears, traumas and personality with rare honesty. Like A Woman Can is a confident celebration of her bisexuality, while Broken Doll revisits old, toxic relationships (‘I still believed the lies we shared, shattered dreams beyond repair’) and the title track opens up about the toll of climbing rock’n’roll’s ladder (‘All my life I’ve had to fight and I don’t know why, I just keep going’).
How Will You Remember Me? closes the album, with Lzzy wondering what her legacy will be after her death. Casting solemn piano against distorted guitar, it’s a gambit of Queen-threatening pomp, all of it reaffirming Everest’s gig-ready grandeur and personal vulnerability. Halestorm have never sounded more comfortably ‘themselves’ than on album six, so after two decades, it seems that their cage has broken at last.
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