Shinedown - Episode 4 (Amaryllis)

Our Shinedown series continues as we dive into the band's fourth studio album, Amaryllis.

In this episode, we discuss the writing and recording of Amaryllis, the band's continued evolution in sound, and how the album further cemented Shinedown's ability to connect with their fans through empowered and relatable lyrics.

As always, we'll be highlighting and dissecting the hidden gems from Amaryllis. Those songs that are overlooked and underappreciated and deserve far more attention than they receive.

Keep an eye out for future episodes as we work our way through Shinedown's discography and uncover hidden gems from albums such as Threat to Survival and Planet Zero.

For any requests for future episodes, please email: RandM.HiddenGems.Podcast@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Welcome, welcome one and all this. Welcome back to Rock and Metal Hidden Gems Podcast! I'm your host, as always, Daniel Stucky, and we are here on episode four on our new Shined Down series. We've covered the first three albums in episodes one to three, Lee the Whisper, custom the phenomenal sound of madness. And now we've come to album number four in Shinedown Discography. Amaryllist.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Let's get straight into it. It's episode four of Shinedown Amarellas.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

If you haven't listened to episodes one to three yet, I recommend you do, but you don't technically have to, but if you haven't, I do recommend you do there maybe one or two callbacks. Episode one, we covered the formation of the band. Uh singer and main songwriter Brent Smith's Discovery by Atlantic Records. The ultimatum he got to leave his band at the time, Dreve, to form a new band from scratch, which they ended up naming Shinedown. And we cover the first album, Leave a Whisper. In episode two, we cover Us and Them. And in episode three, we cover the phenomenal, the best album in Shinedown's catalogue, if you ask me. The phenomenal Sound of Madness. And if you haven't been in this podcast before, what we do here is we cover, we do deep dives on bands, rock and metal bands, obviously. And we cover their backstory from start to the present day. We cover all of their discography in chronological order, and we pick out from each release, each studio album, those hidden gem tracks that get overlooked, overshadowed, undervalued, underappreciated. And I'm bringing it to you, dissecting those tracks who hopefully you see the love that I have for them as well. Today we're on the fourth album from the phenomenal hard rock band Shinedown. This one's called Amarillus. We finished off um episode three with the sound of madness. And if you remember, right before the sound of madness, there was some upheaval with the band. Guitarist Jason Todd was fired. Also, bassist guitarist Brad Stewart left the band. If you want to know why, go ahead and listen to episode three, and it's all discussed in detail there. And the record, The Sound of Madness, was actually uh written and recorded without a full lineup. They had Brent Smith, the main songwriter, lead vocalist, they had original drummer Barry Kirch, uh, but they had no one else. It's just the two of them, and they got studio musicians in to help with the recording of the album, and then when it came to touring, they got actual full-time members. At the time, they brought in a new bassist and two new guitarists. They brought in uh Eric Bass to be the bass guitarist, as I said in episode three. I don't know if it's correctly Eric Bass or Eric Bass. I mean bass and bass are spelt the same, but the fact he's a bass guitarist means whether he likes it or not, he's gonna be called Eric Bass from now on. So he's a new bass guitarist. Uh we brought in Nick Perry, ex-silver tied guitarist as lead guitarist, and Zach Myers was brought in as rhythm guitarist, a guitarist who previously toured with a band and even filled in occasionally on shows when uh Brad Stewart on bass or Jason Todd were unable to perform because they were new dads and they had some paternity leave, for example. Uh in the end, Nick Perry doesn't make it to Amaryllis, he leaves the band, and now we're just left with the four of them. Zach Myers is upgraded from rhythm guitarist to just the guitarist. He plays everything in Shinedown now. And it's been that way ever since just the four of them, and they've they've made it work. But this album, Amaryllis, is actually the first time these four band members are involved in the whole album process. The writing of the songs, the remixing of the songs, the recording of the songs, the production of it. All of that is now done as the four of them for the first time. And this is a stable lineup going forward for the band. So this is where the uncertainty of that lineup change has all done and dusted at this point in the story of Shinedown. Now we are full throttle and we're professional. We've got all our eggs in our basket, but not in a risky basket. We've got them locked up in storage and it's safe. We are cooking now, and there's no going back for the band. But there is a b big gap between the Sound of Madness and Amaryllis. Maybe not in terms of other bands, but for Shinedown, it's a pretty big gap considering how quickly they've been releasing albums. Generally, they've been releasing something maybe every two years. The Sound of Madness came out in 2008, and there was a deluxe version released two years later in 2010. However, this album, Amaryllis, it doesn't come out until 2012. So there's a full four-year gap between the original Sound of Madness and this album, and that's double kind of what you had previously for this band, roughly give or take. And when any band has a longer gap than normal between albums, there's usually some expectation that comes with that. They're expecting something great now because you've been working on it longer than you did the other albums. They're expecting something special. But the work on the fourth album, it officially started February 2011. So by the time the album released is a little over a year when that process started and when the album officially hit stores. Now, if you listened to episode three, you would have remembered me discussing Brent Smith and his substance abuse addiction at the time, and how around the time the sound of madness was being written, he was being a father to his son for the first time, his fiance at the time was pregnant, and he made the decision to basically quit drugs and alcohol to give up that side of his life and overcome his addiction. And in the years between the sound of madness coming out and Amaryllis being written and recorded, uh, he had managed to achieve that sobriety and healthier lifestyle. It wasn't just the drug and alcohol, it was also, if you saw Brent Smith on stage as part of Shinedown in those Sound of Madness years, us and them, or if you just saw it in a music video, uh Brent Smith carried a little bit of extra weight. Nothing too drastical. I wouldn't call him obese, for example, but he carried a little bit more than he was happy with, and he does change that healthier lifestyle, which he maintains going forward from this point on as well. And the impact that had is basically with the direction of the sound and the lyrical content going forward, and it starts in Amaryllis and it just continues really until the present day. It just certain albums go lean into it more than others. I'd say amaryllis probably leans into it less than anything that's gonna come forward later on. But basically, they're gonna now focus in more on empowerment, perseverance, determination, all those positive mental attitude uh feelings and emotions and mindsets, and the music, it does start to change slightly in terms of the sound it goes for. It's still quintessential shine down, but you had Leave a Whisper and Us and Them. We're in those early to mid-2000s, that post-grunge new metal sound, little less and us and them, and then the sound of madness come and kick your or kick your ass, and it was just an awesome album, but it's a more mature version of what they were doing before. It was more professional, it was more well thought out. You could tell as songwriters they had improved and they kind of found that shine-down sound a bit more. In Amaryllis, they take that a little bit more and they get rid of a little bit more of that old heaviness met that little bit of new metal that was lingering in the background that starts to slowly come away. For me at least. Amaryllis is the start of it, it comes away more uh as you get on with the later albums, more recent albums. But the start of that happens here on the album Amaryllis, and it doesn't go full throttle into it yet. This is kind of like an ease in, one foot in, one foot out of that world, if that makes any sense. This is kind of when they're teasing the waters, having a go trying that sound, maybe testing the waters in terms of fan reaction, or maybe it's just a case of this is just where their mindset was slowly going, and it went more in that direction, and their lifestyles went more into that direction, which then influenced their song writings. Uh, you can determine it different ways. Maybe they just thought there was more money in the more mainstream sound where Amarylla starts taking them. Uh, maybe second chance, a single on the sound of madness, and how successful that was for the band was part of that motivation as well, and trying to achieve that again with a new song. Interpretations are up in the air. You choose which one you think is more likely. But the point is, Amaryllis is a start of a sound shift slightly for the band. It's still Shinedown, it still sounds like Shinedown, but it's more as a pop, a mainstream commercialized sound coming in than what was on, for example, The Sound of Madness, or especially Leave a Whisper. Now, is that a good thing or is that a bad thing? That's completely up to you. I'll be honest, the Sound of Madness is my personal favorite Shinedown album. I think if they'd stayed in that sound, I'd be a very happy man. I'm still a happy man with where they went. I still like their later albums, I still like the songs on them. I just can't say that any of those albums to come has a banger after banger after banger like the sound of madness has. But at the same time, those albums like The Sound of Madness for any band don't come around every single day. They're not easy to make an album with just quality after quality after quality. So I can't begrudge them too much. At the same time, I prefer probably that earlier sound. However, their popularity rose from the sound of madness onwards. So there's many more people than me who probably prefer the more mainstream commercial sound of Shinedown. You choose! I will be going through it all so you can make up your own decision. But the point is, bit of history coming here in Amaryllis, in that this is, for me at least, the shift in that sound. The evolution in the sound of Shinedown. A lot of people say maybe this album or the next one, Threat of Survival, is when they started to get influences from the likes of Fallout Boy and Imagine Dragons. And I can certainly see some, but while still staying in that realm of Shinedown, we'll cover it when we hear the songs that have those similarities in this episode or the next. Now I mentioned in previous albums how Shinedown's writing process, they like to write a lot of songs and then cut more than they end up using on the album. Pick the best ones. Pick the cherries on the top of the cake and leave the crumbles. Now, the second album, Us and Them, is the exception of this rule. You can listen to episode two to find out why. Uh but in this one, Amaryllis, they get to kind of go back to what they like to do. They don't go as hard into it like they did early on, where they were writing 50 to 100 songs and picking their favorites. As records show online, supposedly they wrote 33 songs for Amaryllis in total. But in the end, only 12 made the final cut. So again, it's another situation where there's more Shinedown songs on the cutting room floor, never to be here, than there is actually on the studio album releases. Now, in the previous album, they chose to work with music producer Rob Cavallo, previously worked with the Goo Goods, and Green Day introduced him into in episode three. They work with him again on this album, Amaryllis. And Amaryllis? It was released on the 27th of March 2012. So a year and one month after the writing process started. Supposedly the album wrapped up officially in February 2012 and a month later hit stores. The AR bands say they went for a more cinematic feel, trying to balance big rock choruses with heavier metallic riffs and string arrangements. Um, I would agree with that. They definitely start to go in a more big rock chorus era from Amaryllis onwards. They still did it in the previous album, so to say they didn't would be a lie, but they just put more eggs in that basket. They put more of a focus on that kind of sound from this point onwards. Now I keep saying the name of the album, Amaryllis, and a lot of you will probably be wondering what does that actually mean? I always assumed when I first heard of it that it was some town or city in the United States that I've never heard of, and I just went with it. I didn't think too hard about it. But in doing my research, I found out there is a deeper meaning to the words amaryllis. It is not a place name at all anywhere in the world. Well, maybe it is, but that's not what the band were going for if it is, just coincidence. No, the name Amaryllis comes from Greek poetry, and in that Greek poetry, Amaryllis was a sheep herdess's name and is associated with beauty and shining elegance. The Greek word amariso means to sparkle or to shine, and the theory is that amaryllis stems from that Greek word amarisso. Now there was more creative roles on this album from the other band members, especially Zack Myers and Eric Bass. So, guitarist and bass guitarist there previously. He would work with professional songwriters and they would collaborate together. Sometimes some of the other band members, like Jason Todd, for example, had some writing credits, some co-writing credits, but Brent Smith was kind of always involved, and the other band members just were really there to maybe add the odd idea here and help with the recording and the live shows. In this album onwards, that takes a slight change. And as I said, now guitarist Zach Myers and bass guitarist Eric Bass takes more of a role than they did before. It's still mainly Brent Smith, especially with the lyric writing. But in terms of the music, they do play more of a role now in that creative process that starts in Amaryllis. Initial sales were strong for Amaryllis, debuting at number four on the Billboard 200. However, sales slowed down compared to the Sound of Madness, with the album only reaching uh gold in the US, which is half a million units sold. Sound of Madness hit platinum. So did Leave a Whisper, so it's a bit of a drop-off here for Amaryllis. And I think that's partly due to the gap between the Sound of Madness and Amaryllis coming out. I talked in previous episodes how record companies don't like risk. So they like to maintain the popularity and the band recognition and the brand recognition as well, and just the overall buzz going along with the band for as long as they can without any silence. Because when you get silent silence from the band when they're not touring, not releasing music, that's when people start to forget. Um, and I think the four-year gap between albums here played a little part. People were Shinedown fans, they loved it in 2008, and then maybe they moved on to other bands in those four years. They weren't kept to stick with Shinedown because there wasn't a release very quickly afterwards. So they moved on maybe to other genres as well, or maybe they just didn't listen to music as much, whatever it is. By the time Amarillas came out, there weren't quite as many of those Shinedown fanatics around. That's the theory, at least the business theory. Perhaps there's the other argument that maybe the album just wasn't good enough, maybe critically it wasn't reviewed well enough, or maybe the singles used to promote the album didn't hit hard enough. You take your pick. I think the promotional singles were good enough. I think it was a four-year gap. In terms of the critics, how did they review this album? Well, Louder gave it three and a half stars out of five, Metal Hammer UK gave it seven out of ten, effectively. Entertainment Weekly gave it 58 out of 100. Apparently that's a score. Rolling Stone gave it four out of ten. Q Magazine four out of ten. All music five out of ten. So we've got some mixed reviews here. Some people think it's a good album, some think it's an average album. I'll let you decide when I play some clips. The first promotional single to come from Amaryllis, uh, that came out in January of 2012, so two months before the album released the 3rd of January to be exact. Uh, and the song went gold overall, selling half a million units, and it got to number 94 in the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 3 in the US Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart. So that's different to the Billboard Mainstream Modern Rock chart because that one, the one they hold the record for the no most number ones on, this one went to number one on there too. So this is one that adds to that record at the eventually claimed. And this song, you're wondering what it's called? It's called Bully. They don't take a backseat, but the focus on them is more about overcoming those addictions rather than letting them overcome you. Like maybe in some of the earlier albums, that was the case. For example, the song Save Me being one of those. Now, Brad Smith has talked about the song, bully, and here's a quote of what he said the song was about. It's about not feeling like you can't stand up for yourself and take back your self-respect. If you feel as if someone is belittling you or trying to push you around, the song is not condoning violence. What it is condoning is survival. I don't think that anyone should ever have their self-respect or their dignity taken away from them. So it's really self-explanatory. It's a song fighting back against the bullies in the world. I think the song title, the lyrical content, the chorus, all makes that blatantly obvious, and Brent Smith just confirms it there for you in that quote, there's no hidden interpretation here. It is as black and white as the song is coming across. And I think that is a very empowering song. I can see that song helping certain people that were suffering with bullies in their youth, for example. I can see them listening to this song and taking inspiration from it. Uh, so more credit to the band for helping those people out. The second promotional single came out on the 13th of March 2012. So this is a week or two before the album's official release. This one went to number nine on the US Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart. And again, like Bolly, this one topped the Billboard mainstream rock chart. Getting them to the record slowly and surely. And this song is called Unity. The song Unity There. Now, I'll talk a little bit more about Bully Unity. I want to get into the third single first before I start talking about the singles as a collective. There are five in total promotional singles. I'll cover them all, but I think when I get through the first three, I think I can make my collective point about what we've heard so far. So let's get to the third single that was released on the 17th of July 2012. So this one is the first that came out after the release of Amaryllis. This went to number 29 on the hot US Rock and Alternative Songs. It was also used in the opening theme for WWE RAW between July 2016 and January 2018. So a good few years after the initial songs released, but great publicity for the song. And that is massive because this is the highest stream track on the album by a mile. And I think if it wasn't used as a main theme for WWE RAW, the TV show, professional wrestling show, if it wasn't used as a theme for that show with all the fan base around the world, I don't think it would be the highest stream track on the album. I think that would be for one of the other singles. But this one is, this one is a great track. It's what I opened the podcast with, and this one's called Enemies. There. Now that probably is, in my opinion, the best song on this album, Amaryllis. I thought it at the time when it first came out, and I still think it today, just about. It's also the highest dream track on the album, and as I said, I think WWE Raw is the main catalyst for that. But I'm glad it is because it probably is the overall best track on the album. Now, I said I'm gonna talk about the first three singles collectively as a whole: Gabully, Unity, Enemies, and I want to compare them to the first three singles from The Sound of Madness, the previous album. The Sound of Madness, the first single there was Devour. The second single was Second Chance, which is their best, most successful single they've ever done. And the third single was the title track Sound of Madness. Now, the Sound of Madness in terms of an album outperformed Amaryllis. It did at the time when it first released, and it did in the long long term too. The first single, Devour, I think is a better song than the first single in Amaryllis Bully. I think Bully has the better message, the more relatable lyrics, but as a song, I think Devour's a great track, great energy, uh, catchy melodies and riffs. I don't feel the same in Bully. You got the big rock chorus in Bully, the purposeful meaning behind the song. Hopefully it helped a lot of people. But as a song, other than the bam bad, hey, it doesn't feel to be a real driving hook to the track when it's meant to be that up-tempo banger that they play towards the start of the album. Unity, I think, is also trying to go for the same kind of vibe second chance had. Second chance is more of a ballad than Unity. Unity is more the emotion of being a collective unit, a family coming together. It's all hitting the same kind of vibes and trying to hit the same audience for me, just with slightly different tones to it, with one being more of a ballad and more, the other being still kind of soft in tone, but not being a sad or slow song as such. But I think second chance, the lyrical content hits people harder, more relatable to people than the lyrical content in Unity. In second chance, you got those lyrics. I mentioned it in episode three. Tell my mother, tell my father, I've done the best I can to make them realize this is my life. I hope you understand. There's so many people that can relate to that. Such a powerful and clever lyric by Brent Smith. And not because the lyrics have clever prose or imagination or metaphors or adjectives, but because it's just so easy to relate to. It's to the point, and a lot of people will feel like it's them singing the song and not someone else. You don't get that in Unity. In Unity, it's all about put your hands in the air, let me hear you out there, I've been looking for you day and night. It's it's a nice song, but it's not something that everyone's gonna jump up to and say, yes, that song is singing to me, the person is looking inside my soul. And therefore, therefore, I don't think unity hits anywhere near harsh realities for a lot of people like Second Chance did. So for me, uh Devour and Second Chance are outperforming Bully and Unity. Third single Enemies, you compare that to the third single Sound of Madness from the album. Both are great tracks. Both are servicing the same thing, trying to get that more heavier up tempo song, you know, appeasing the rock and metal fans out there listening to Shinedown. I think both are great tracks. I think Sound of Madness just tips it because it's such a good song and it's a classic song for the band. But Enemies is up there too. They play both live to this day. I don't think you can read it. I think I'm splitting hairs if I try to do that comparison. So I'm gonna give that a draw. So now you got two going up for Sound of Madness, and you gotta tie on a third single. Yes, it's a four-year gap, and I think that was a big thing between the two albums. But if Shinedown did come out after that four-year gap and they were hitting all the same strengths that Sound of Madness did, and it's more of the same, I think maybe they could have got away with it. But trying to change the sound a little bit and not having the songs that hit as hard as what Sound of Madness did. I think that's what ultimately was part of the contribution why this album, Amaryllis, only went gold and Sound of Madness went platinum. Let's get back into the singles. There are two more promotional singles for Amaryllis. The next one was released uh almost a year after the album. So Shinedown do love to release singles. That's probably why they do have the most number one singles on US mainstream rock chart. This next single came out on the 5th of February 2013. And if it wasn't for, in my opinion, WWE Raw having enemies as their main theme, I think this next one would be the highest stream track on the album at the moment. It's the second highest stream track on the album, and it's track nine is called I'll Follow You.

SPEAKER_06 29:27

Second one might be profound.

SPEAKER_03 30:02

I'll follow you there. I'll be honest, it's the second highest stream track on the album, so a lot of people obviously like it, but for me, eh it's not the strongest Shinedown song for me. Not necessarily to my taste, and it's got a bit more pop about it, and it's definitely going for that huge arena rock sound, which as I said, they start to do from Amaryllis onwards for me. They've always had an a part of it in their DNA, but now they're going hard on the focus of it. And I'll follow you for me is an example of that. I said a lot of people like the song, second high stream track on the album on Spotify, just not to my taste. Now, there's one other promotional single released off the back of the album. It's come out on the 13th of August 2013. So almost a year and a half after the album initially came out, which is crazy. But they're selling, they're doing well on the charts, so it makes sense from a business perspective. And this one is the opening track on the album. This is when it kicks the whole album off, and it's called Adrenaline.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

I'm making a real I'm not a glorious disaster.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Great opening track as well. Surprised that wasn't the one of the early singles rather than the final single. I think it suits more of the sound of madness sound that fans maybe were expecting. And although the lyrical meaning, the meaning behind the song uh doesn't hit home as hard as Bully, I think it is a better song overall. All opinions though, and you're welcome to agree or disagree with me. Now, before we get to the Hidden Gems, there's one other song I want to cover. It didn't even make the album. And also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Shinedown fans though that maybe have never heard it because they haven't dissected the Shinedown story like I had to as part of the research for this podcast. For you see, Shinedown around this time writing music for Amaryllis, uh, they wrote a song for a huge Hollywood movie that came out in 2012. That Hollywood movie is still a well-known and extremely popular movie to this day. But it was the movie that really broke the Marvel cinematic universe to the forefront and made it this billion-dollar industry that Disney eventually bought. That movie was called The Avengers, and the song that Shinedow wrote for the soundtrack to The Avengers is called I'm Alive. Now, are we ready for some hidden gems, everyone? I'm sure you are. That's why you'll come to this podcast, right? I've got three hidden gems to get through for the album, Amaryllis. And the first of those hidden gem tracks that we're gonna cover is track number seven on the album. And as it goes, it's the lowest streamed overall track on the album. So if there's ever a classification for hidden gem track that's deserved and justified, this one is it. The lowest streamed track on the album is track number seven, and my first hidden gem from Amarillas. It's called Nowhere Kids. I genuinely don't understand how this is the lowest stream track on Amaryllis on Spotify. There are definitely worse tracks on the album. This one is a banger! I still think Enemies is the best track, but this is probably the most similar. It's quite heavy, not as heavy as Enemies, but it's in that territory. And maybe that's why. Maybe the people who are listening to Amaryllis now are the ones that like the songs like Unity and I'll Follow You. Maybe they're going more for that arena rock sound, and this one is definitely akin back to the sound of Madness Era. Maybe that's why I like it as my hidden gem, but it is a great, great track. It kicks off with this high energy. It's coming in hot. In fact, it's coming in so hot. This song has a cuss word in it. It has a swear word in it, which is unheared off for Shine Down. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But I cut it off there towards the bridge going into the chorus. I'll play it for you in a moment. But that's the bit that really gets you going with the catchiness of the song, the rhythm of the song is going photogenic, come and get it. You can have it, take it all. Schizophrenic, sorceristic. I don't know, I don't know. The lyrics there are designed to be rhythmic so it can suit the instruments of the music and everything can work together for this cool, catchy, rhythmic section. Before we go into the big chorus, which we're about to do now, let's get back to nowhere kids.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

That's what you want, it's got to give it away.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

A nice earworm there, fun to sing to as well. But then you get to that chorus, and that chorus is soaring. It's got that rock anthem, the arena rock to it, but in a more of a metal way, it's more grounded. And I think the lyrical content here as well is so relatable, but I think it gets missed by people. Mainly because probably they haven't heard the song in the first place, but maybe they don't pick up the meaning because it's not as in your face. But when you do know the meaning of the song and you listen to the lyrics, it becomes very, very obvious. And I think a lot of people would find it relatable and would like it more, and it wouldn't be the lowest stream track on Spotify. I still don't get that. I really don't. I hope you're agreeing with me after hearing at least a chorus. It's a soaring chorus, very, very catchy. Now, I mentioned how Brent Smith swears in this song. I think it's the first time he does it, and I don't remember him doing it since either. I could be wrong. There's probably an instance where he does. But this is certainly one of the first times I've ever heard him do it, and it's in that line right before the chorus to lead you into it where he just basically aggressively shouts, Tell him I don't give a fuck. Now, if you got children in the car with you listening to this podcast or something similar, I do apologize for swearing on the podcast, but I gotta tell the story the way it's gotta be told. And Brian Kirch Drummer had this to say about the fact that Brent swore on a Shinedown song. It shocked me too. We cuss like sailors out here on the road, but Brent's grandmother would slap him every time. It surprised me that he put it on the record. But it was what he was feeling at the time. What he had to get off his chest. He doesn't cuss just to cuss. He doesn't want to put it in songs just to put it in songs. That's why you haven't heard it on Shinedown Records. For some reason, this time he had to get it out, so he did. Uh, in terms of the meaning of the song for nowhere kids, Barry Kirch also said this. It's about modern technology and kids getting lost in it. They don't go out and play anymore. You don't see them running around parks anymore. They're just tapping on the consoles all day long. But hey, we're as guilty, although we're stuck on a bus. But kids should get off and work, get out and see something. Kids often seem lost in this fake world. People on Facebook aren't really your friends. I've got proper friends, and I don't need a Facebook account. Drummer Barry Kirch there on the Meaning for Nowhere kids. And I think there's some truth to that part of it. I think it's Barry just having a bit of a ramble, a bit of a rant. Uh obviously the lyrics were written by Brent Smith, not Barry Kirch. And I think there is a little bit more to it. I think it's also uh a harsh critique of social superficiality, the obsession with fame, the emptiness of shallow social scenes. Basically a counterculture anthem and challenging people to see past the fashion and reject the hate machine of modern social dynamics. I think a lot of teens who were grow up to be rock and metal fans, they would have been one of the minorities growing up because rock and metal music, newsflash, apparently isn't cool when you're in school. Apparently the cool stuff is all these days, is all rap and hip-hop. When I was younger, it would have been 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, maybe some of the dance track techno people like Ultravox. Um, they were all over the place back then. There was too many of them to really name Scooter. I eventually have to name another one off the top of my head. I guess they were seen as the cool acts, and then maybe bands like Maroon 5 kind of eased away into there. You could have got away with being cool if you liked Blink 182 and had a skater punk scene with Sum41 and Fallout Boy, etc. If you like things, even like Shinedown, if you like the rock or metal world, I was huge into System of a Down and Iron Maiden back then. They were my two big bands. They weren't seen as cool. So we were challenging the fashion and going against the hate machine that hates people who aren't following fashion and being a sheep essentially and following the crowd. So I can see so many people relating to the song, and it should get more Spotify streams because of that reason, if nothing else, other than also it's a cool kick-ass song. And we're gonna get right back to that song, Nowhere Kids. That chorus, I haven't talked about it enough really. Um, it comes in with the No One Needs You After All, and then you got these two quick lines that come. Afterwards, that little social scene, it's just a hate machine. It's almost like a question and answer process. You got the question of it happens in the next line, so I'll go there. No one's here to take a call. And then the answer. And now your self-esteem ain't what it used to be. It's just working so well in harmony with each other. It's all coming together. It's catchy. It's sing-along. You could do this as a duo if you wanted. You could have Brent Smith doing that first line, Noah Needs You After All. And then backing vocals coming in with that little social scene. It's just a hate machine. It works really, really well. I don't know why more people I I'm still shocked. This is a lowest stream track on Spotify in this album. That is crazy to me. Absolutely crazy. I won't get over that even when this podcast is done and finished and in the can. Absolutely shocking to me. But it builds up and builds up this chorus. It's in your face, it's soaring, and then it gets to those last couple of lines where it just reaches that crescendo, comes up a notch or two with the yes, who's back in mad as hell!

SPEAKER_02 45:08

The nowhere kids that wished you will.

SPEAKER_03 45:13

And then you get the post-chorus aggression of them going, nowhere, kids!

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Nowhere, kids. It's all it's all attitude coming out. Attitude to challenge the system, the social constructs around you, and be your true self.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

Be you, who you want to be, and be into the fashions and the things that you want to be and that you actually have a passion and an enjoyment for. Great, great chorus, great, great track. Let's get into this breakdown. It's very quick breakdown, but notice the bass guitarist is carrying the backing rhythm and the backing chords, etc. And it's just playing the same riff from that bridge, a catchy rhythmic bridge. But this time you got some higher, much higher pitch guitar effects going on in the background to give it a different feel. Uh, if you weren't looking for those note-based things, you wouldn't even get the connection to the bridge, really. But I'm telling you about them, so now you can hear about them if you weren't gonna pick it up yourself. This is the breakdown of the song Nowhere Kids, going into the final chorus. We'll now play it till the end of the song Nowhere Kids. A great, great upbeat, kick-ass rock track. I hope you liked it too. We're gonna move on now to my second hidden gem from Amaryllis. This one is track number 11, and like Nowhere Kids, where I mentioned some cuss words, at a time when I was talking about it, I can't believe this one went over my head because it's another example of a cuss word in a Shinedown song on the same album, no the less. And we'll get to it when we get to it. But this is my second hidden gem from Amarella. It's track number 11, and it's the highest streamed track of all my hidden gems for this album. It's called My Name Wearing Me Out. This song starts off with tension. This is a dark song, not dark in like a suicide, for example, way or a lost child, but it's dark in an aggressive way, and there's tension there just so the way the instrumentation cuts in on the beat, so it's not doing a consistent kind of uh volume with the instrumentation, it's doing like the psycho theme kind of thing without being as dramatic and in your face about it. So it's going bam ba ba ba bam ba ba bam. You've got these b ba b ba. You got bits in between, but it's a lot quieter in volume. So it's coming at you with a stabbing almost rhythm. Uh so it's adding the tension. And then the lyrics in there. My name is worthless like you told me I once was. My name is empty because you drained away the love. I mean, they're quite dark lyrics, and they're not being sung in an upbeat happy way either by Brent Smith. They're being sung as they were meant to be sung. Love the way it comes in, and then talking about the way things come in. What about when the extra guitars and the drums come in? Oh, that's when it kicks out. It happens on line three of the first verse. We go from Brent Smith singing more in going more for the vibes and the tone of what he's going for with the lyrics with the My Name is Worthless like you told me I once was. It's more cutting. And then when it comes in on line three, he picks it up and also all the instruments come in and it comes in out of nowhere, very sudden, which is again sudden tension. It's all coming together, but it's kick-ass and it's heavy. As I said, he comes in with a higher tempest who's going, My name is searching since you stole my only soul. You know, he's picked it up, he's no longer going, my name is empty, cause you drained away the love.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

No, it is up. It's my name is Hatred and the Reasons we both know.

SPEAKER_03 50:50

Great, great, and then we come into the bridge, which is all there to kind of ease some of the tension to get into the chorus with the cutting words again in the lyrics, the worthless, empty, searching hatred. Well, who am I right now? It's all all cutting words. This song is all about tension, and I'll get into the song's meaning in a little bit after we've heard the chorus. And when you get to the next section, you're gonna hear that cuss word I was talking about because it's in the first line of the chorus. Let's get to it. We'll listen to the bridge and the first chorus. My name wearing me out. So there's the cuss word. In the first line of the chorus, it doesn't just say you're wearing me out, he says you're fucking wearing me out. He has all his frustration in this song, and I'm not one for swearing in songs either. I think it kind of segregates a certain audience who aren't old enough or mature enough to listen to that kind of music. But in this instance, in the story, they're trying to tell the emotions, they're trying to convey, I think it is needed, and it makes a massive difference. Imagine if it came in this chorus, it bursts on the scene. It comes in and it's cutting right from the off. And imagine it comes in going, You're wearing me out! It doesn't have anywhere near as much impact as you're fucking wearing me! It's so, so much hard hitting. And that's exactly what the chorus needs to do to get that attention, frustration, the anger across to the listener, whether they want to get those emotions or not. If you're listening to the song, it wants to make sure you feel the emotion. That's the art form of the music, and what the vocalist Brent Smith, the songwriter, is going for. He's trying to portray these emotions so you can feel them too. Now, what is a song about? Well, you get anger, emotion, tension. I think all of that is pretty obvious. Uh again, drummer Barry Kirch has given us a little quote here. It's about someone in Brent's life who really wore him down. We don't like cussing on records, although we all cuss like sailors and makes Brent's grandma angry. The profanity works well with the song, and I can really relate to that. So basically, it's about someone in Brent's life. I'll let you judge if it's an ex-partner, an ex-friend, ex-family member, or whoever has never been named, but they basically got on Brent Smith's nails, and this is the song attacking them without actually naming them. And basically saying how they're cutting them out of my life. And one of the things I want to pick out in our chorus is the first half of the chorus is very wordy with the lines going, You're the fake fallen forces of nature, sick man! I don't need a gun to take back what's mine. And it's all very wordy, wordy, wordy, wordy. Nothing's really held. And then the next line is it's over. And then there's a big pause. There's no words, it's trying to let you digest those two words. It's over. It's repeated. It's over now. You're done wearing me. But it's getting that across, I guess, directly to the person Brent Smith is aiming the song at. But everyone's had someone we fall in that with in the past. Sometimes you make up with that person, sometimes you don't. But I think everyone again can relate to the song. And a lot of shinedown is about relatable lyrics. They write about real stuff, real emotions, real feelings, real situations. And I think that's another reason why they're so successful as a band and why they hit the mainstream as hard as they do. They're not singing, and no disrespect to this, because I like it. They're not singing about uh bad periods in history, they're not singing generic love songs like the pop world does, you know, I'm in love, or oh no, he broke up with me, he doesn't love me. It's not that you hear that so many times, it's just generic, it doesn't mean anything. This this stuff, this emotions, you can relate to it, and it's not corny in the way it's delivered either. It's not using the stereotype situations of like be my baby or any lines like that. It is in your face, and it's just saying, You're fucking wearing me out. It is exactly how you would almost speak to that person that is really, really getting on your nerves. Let's get back into my name, Wearing Me Out. We'll get back into just after the first chorus. So we're about to go into the breakdown of the song. Every Shinedown song pretty much has the same format: verse chorus, verse chorus, and then a breakdown into the final chorus. There'll be a pre-chorus and a post-chorus. They'll exist, the bridges, but generally they all follow the same format and the same three to four minute format. And now we're about to go into the breakdown after the second chorus. Uh the chord sequence changes at first, but it's still kind of dark in tone. Not in like a Black Sabbath kind of dark way, but it's definitely dark for Shine Down. And then it comes back into the bridge and listen out for this very high-pitched sound effect going on. I don't really know why it's there other than to sound cool, but it does sound cool to my ears before it cuts all the way down just to give you these lines. My name is Revenge, and I'm here to save my name. You're fucking wearing me out, comes back in. Those two lines are kind of sung in isolation, so you really feel the meaning and the intent behind them. There's no mistaking what they're going for here in this song. Anger is the main emotion, and it sounds kick-ass with that line where everything drops, and you've got Brent Smith. My name is Revenge, and I'm here to save my name. And I'm talking about it mainly so you listen out for it because we're gonna listen to it next. This is the breakdown for my name wearing me out.

SPEAKER_04 58:41

And I'm here to save my name. You fucking wearing me.

SPEAKER_03 58:49

How cool is that little breakdown there with those two lines? Sounds great, doesn't it? Hope you enjoyed it too. I wanted to call it out before you heared it so you could pay special attention to it, even though you can't really miss it. It's obvious and in your face. Unlike that high-pitched sound with a that kind of went on there randomly. Um, I mentioned why that I earlier on I mentioned that I didn't really understand why that was there, but I thought it sounded cool. It's got a little theory. Now, if you listen to the lyrics, they're talking about Brent Smith being called crazy. He uses the word loco, which obviously is crazy in Spanish, español. So I think maybe this is just like something that sounded a bit crazy, so put it in to add to the song. Clearly, I'm looking way more into it, but I'm gonna try and give it that little bit of theory. If I'm writing an English literature essay, this is the kind of stuff you do with poetry, right? I'm doing it right here. Music at the end of the day is kind of poetry with a backing track, so I'm doing it. Now we're gonna get to the play the final chorus one more time. I just want to call out just the energy of the song. It's constant throughout. I love it. I love the energy, the emotion, the attitude in this song throughout. I think it's great. It's definitely not wearing me out. I want to hear more of it. And just listen to the energy as we get to the final chorus. It's not anything you haven't already heard, but just pay attention to it because it sounds great. This is the final chorus, and we'll play it to the end of my name, wearing me out.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:21

You're fucking wearing me.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:18

Such a good song there, and my second hidden gem track from the album Amaryllis. One thing I want to point out if you just listen to that last clip and the final chorus. I mentioned earlier in the earlier choruses, they're quite wordy until you get to that line, it's over, and then it's let to breathe, so you can take the message. On the final chorus, you've had that chance for the message to breathe. Now we're just repeating it, it's going, it's over, it's over, kind of in the background while you got Brent Smith still belting out the vocals of the rest of the lines of the chorus. Sounds great. Love that track, love that song. It has more streams than the previous Hidden Gem Nowhere Kids, and I'm thankful for that, but it still is eligible for our hidden gem territory. So please, if you like what you hear, go check it out. Now we're gonna move on to my final hidden gem track from the album, Amaryllis. It has more streams than Nowhere Kids, but still well short of my name wearing me out, and still well short of the rest of the major tracks on the album. For the record, the highest stream track in the album, as I mentioned earlier, is Enemies. It's not even close to number two, which is I'll Follow You, followed by number three, which is Bully. And then there's a bit of a gap until we drop down to the final track in the album, Through the Ghost, and the opening track in the album, Adrenaline. And then there's a further drop again until we get to where our hidden gem territory is. And our third hidden gem, it's track number 10 on the album. And it's called For My Sake.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:21

It's raining on me again.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:24

So for my sake, starts with this. I don't wanna call it a heavy riff. There's heavier songs and heavier riffs on the Shinedown album, and of course, Shinedown aren't the heaviest band anyway. But it starts with this not light riff, this kind of heavy riff, and then it breaks down into the verse where it softens a little bit. Now, this song, I'm gonna tell you what it's about because I think it's gonna help me kind of dissect the different sections a little bit. We got another quote from drummer Barry Kirch. If you're wondering why there's so many drummer Barry Kirch uh quotes about these hidden gem tracks, it's because he's had an interview with the media Alternative Addiction, where he's kind of talked about a lot of the songs on Amaryllis, so you kind of get these little sound bikes for each one. And for this one, uh Barry Kirch said, Well, this is about a guy that used to work with us, and we really looked up to him, but he changed. Changed who he was, changed his whole outlook on life. We respected him, and then he had a midlife crisis at the drop of a dime, and became a different person, and we had to let him go. So basically, it's in its core, it's about walking away from a toxic or stagnant relationship. It could be a relationship that was romantically involved, like an ex-partner, it could be one that was just based on friendship, it could be one based on a professional working relationship that you've had many years working together. It doesn't really matter. The point is that it was working, there was good times, there was happy memories, but something's changed. This relationship has turned toxic, and for your own sake, or in this case, for Mass sake, I've gotta walk away from this relationship. And in the case of this uh song by Shine Down and Brent Smith, uh Barry Kirch confirms it was someone that used to work with the band so that it was that professional working relationship, which I'm sure over the years turned into a friendship as well. I'm sure there wasn't just a pure this is only about business kind of relationship. I'm sure they used to hang out as well after work, whatever work they were doing. I don't know who this person is, they haven't been named by Barry, but there is someone that they used to work with for a few years and they had a midlife crisis, changed who they were, as Barry put it, and the relationship turned toxic, and Brent Smith and Shinedown had to walk away. And they wrote a song about it for my sake. Now the verse calms down, and for me, this is the part of the song where they're reflecting on the better times when the relationship was working pre toxic, when oh, in Barry's case, pre midlife crisis. And look at the lines in the lyrics. I remember.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

Remember like yesterday you had a dream in your eyes and a smile in your face, and I'm missing those days again. I'm missing those days again.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:12

It's our self-reflection of what the relationship used to be when it was a happy one before the toxicity and the changes all came in. We're gonna get to the bit later on when the reflection of the toxic side of the relationship comes in more in the chorus, when the guitars come back in, and this again, it's not the heaviest song in the album, but it's definitely on the heavier side of the scale, if that makes sense. Let's get back into it for my sake.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:39

It's raining on me here.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:37

It's a song that's stuck in my head when I did my research for this podcast. It is an earworm, and I'm surprised that more people haven't put more Spotify streams on Spotify on this album for that reason. It is very much a catchy tune. And it's all because of the vocal melody and the rhythm that Brent Smith is singing in. He does it a lot. I've mentioned it a lot on this podcast series already. The instrumentation is supporting Brent here. He's doing all I don't want to say the carrying because they're all working in harmony together for one end goal. But he's the lead star. He's, if you're gonna do a sport analogy, he's your star striker, and everyone else is trying to feed him the ball to get the goals. That's what's happening in this chorus. And it's very, very catchy. And in terms of the meaning of the song, it's just hitting the nail on the head with the lyrics.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:29

For example, stop slowing me down, stop holding me up, we're making a scene, and that's enough. Let's be honest. Your promise was never meant to last. I'm taking you on, I'm calling you out. There's nothing left for us here now.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:47

I went longer than I was planning there because it didn't feel like a normal place to stop. And that's a very good point to make. This vocal melody line is catchy because it's rhythmic and it's continuous, it never stops. Every time you think it's gonna stop, it immediately leads into the next line, which meant that when I was trying to do one or two lines for you there, there was no easy place for me to stop in the end. I think it's only the last couple of lines of the chorus I didn't sing. So back to my initial point. That vocal melody is where this song entirely shines. You get that main riff, the main theme of the song, which was the opening riff. It comes back in right after the chorus, and you got Brent over this time over the top going, For my sake! You know, that's their giving it the song a hook, a key theme. But where this song shines and gets stuck in your head is our vocal melody in the chorus for me. And we're gonna hear it one more time because we're gonna come back in a little bit before the second chorus. We're gonna hear that and then stop before we just talk about the breakdown before hearing it. So let's get back to it for my sake.

unknown 1:09:51

I've been gonna change my mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:54

I'm gonna die, the key drop, a manifest one.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

It shines in the choruses. It's going for the arena rock, they get better at it as they go on. I think Sound of Madness Onwards is where they're really good at it. In the earlier albums, they got the big choruses as well, but it doesn't quite hit as catchy and as earwormy as it does from Sound of Madness Onwards. And for my sake, it's one of those songs that relies on the chorus. Don't have a good chorus in this song, I don't think it's my hidden gem, but that chorus really does separate it. Now, going back to the song's meaning and comparing this, for example, to the previous Hidden Gem, my name wearing me out, which is actually the next track on the album, if you go with the album order. That one is very, very aggressive. It's cussing out swearing, it's in your face. Even the song Enemies and Nowhere Kids on this album, they're also quite aggressive in their tone. For my sake, it doesn't really go then. And I think the reason for it is because it's about a relationship that turned toxic that they're gonna walk away from for my sake. But they didn't really want to walk away from it. They had to, they had no choice, or they felt like they had no choice for their own sanity, their own mental health, their own professional working environment. They had to walk away. But it doesn't mean they're happy about it. They didn't want to walk away, they'd rather that relationship stayed as it was with those happier previous memories. So it's kind of like a sombra kind of walking away here where you're doing it against your best wishes, against what you truly, truly want, but you have no choice. Therefore, the song's a bit lighter in tone. It's still got that aggression, attention to it, that slight heaviness, because you are again walking away from a toxic relationship. It has to be there. But at the same time, you wish you didn't have to. So you got that lighter, somber, self-reflective tone about it. And that is key for this little breakdown where the lighter tones all come in, matching kind of more the tones of the verses. We're gonna listen to that breakdown and we're gonna listen to the final chorus to the end to wrap up my third and final hidden gem from Amarillus for my sake. For my sake. One thing to call out in that breakdown you just heard. Notice when it kind of I mentioned how we know you don't want to walk away from that toxic relationship. Notice in the breakdown when everything's lighter in tone, and the way Brent Smith is delivering the lines of the breakdown right before the final chorus when he goes, Stop slower me down! Stop holding me up, stop slower me down, and then he comes in with the last line, and that's in, which builds up into the final chorus. Notice all those three lines before the final one. It's almost like he's begging this person to stop doing what you're doing, stop having this midlife crisis, as Barry Kirch puts it. Go back to how things were, be the person that you once were, so we can still have this good, fun, working relationship. Uh and in the end, with the last line there in that breakdown, and that's enough. Getting into the final chorus. You begged, nothing changed, right? But that's enough. Now we're, for my sake, walking away. Great, great track. I think all three hidden gems are great tracks. I don't know why, in some cases, they are they are the lowest streamed track on the album on Spotify. Really don't understand that. There's definitely worse tracks on the album. But yeah, I think they're all great tracks. I generally try and make sure the only good to great tracks are hidden gems. I think there's been one occasion where an album, in my opinion, didn't even warrant a hidden gem track. I tried, I was halfway through the track and I had to retract my category, my award, my hidden gem award from the track because I just felt I was overselling it because it wasn't as good as I remembered on first listen. Go back to the Iron Maiden series to find out which album and track that was. Now I'll move on and do a conclusion for the album Amaryllis in a little bit. Before we do, I was one thing I want to cover quickly before we wrap up the episode as well. Uh, prior to the next album coming out, the next album comes out in September 2015. It's called Threat to Survival. We will cover that in episode five, the next episode on the Shinedown series. But prior to the album coming out, Brent Smith and guitarist Zach Myers took over 4,000 song cover requests from Shinedown fans, and a variety of song styles were chosen deliberately to kind of mix up the genres. And these were recorded for two EPs called The Acoustic Sessions, released in January and March of 2014. Some of the cover songs chosen were from bands like The Clash, Otis Reading. Remember that's one of Brent Smith's early inspirations. Metallica, The Black Crows, Adele, Pilljam, Phil Collins, Bon Jovi. So quite a mix across the rock, pop, and even, in some cases, just the RB world. Let's have a quick listen to some of those songs. We won't dissect them, but we'll play you a little clip. So if you like what you hear, you can go away and try and track down the acoustic sessions for yourself. These songs are not classified as Shinedown songs. They come under the artist named Smith and Myers, but obviously they are two core members of Shinedown. And the first clip I'm gonna show you is their cover of Otis Reading, because I talked about this particular song a lot on episode one of the series. The song is sitting on the dock of the bay.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:44

So I'm gonna sit on the dock of the bay and watch the Ta roll away. I'm gonna sit on the dock of the bay.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:58

And wait, the Otis Redding cover of sitting on the dock of the bay, then how about a Metallica cover? Nothing else matters.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:29

And nothing else matters.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:37

Cover of Metallica's nothing else matters there. Now the highest dreamed track on these acoustic sessions, part one and part two combined, uh most people outside of the United States probably won't even know who the original song was done by because they've never heard the original song. I believe the original song is like an American blues song. The artist is uh an American blues guitarist, and that guitarist's name is Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and the song is Blue on Black.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:09

Hey, blue on black, tears on a river, push on a shove, it don't mean much. Joker on Jack, match on a fire, cold on ice, the dead man's touch. Whisper on a screen doesn't change a thing, doesn't bring you on black Blue on black there, the highest dream song in these acoustic sessions, part one and part two combined.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:46

Now, because I haven't played anything off part two yet, I feel like I should just do one more quick clip. So we're gonna go track one of part two, which is a cover of Adele. Someone like you.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:57

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvalid, but I couldn't stay away. I couldn't fight it. I hope you'd see my face, then let you be reminded of me.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:08

It is an old Sometimes it's that sometimes it hurts instead. Sometimes it's hurt, sometimes it hurts instead.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:51

The cover of Adele Someone Like You There. Now, in if you like what you hear there in the acoustic sessions, the Smith and Myers Act, uh, they have done it again since in 2020, probably because of a lockdown given the year. They did another volume one and another volume two, more tracks in there. There's a couple of original uh written tracks by them as well, unique ones for them, not just covers, majority are still covers. And if you want to hear them do covers of the likes of The Righteous Brothers, yes, Unchained Melody, Neil Young in Excess, The Zootons, or Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson, ticky pick, but yes, it's Valerie. Uh Billy Idol, Oasis, REM, Peter Gabriel, Billy Eilish, yes, they did a cover of Bad Guy. If you're interested in that, go check it out, Smith and Myers. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, whatever you're into if you like that. And it's not under the Shinedown banner, but it's the guitarist and the singer from Shinedown doing a strip back acoustic set. And it feels with the sound as well, the way it's recorded, it's not polished. It feels like the old uh MTV unplugged sessions to me, but instead of playing Shinedown songs, they're doing cover songs based on Shinedown fan requests. Now, that brings us to an end pretty much of the podcast. I want to wrap up my thoughts first of all on the album Amaryllis. So, what do I think of Shinedown's fourth release, Amaryllis? In general, um, I think it is a good album. I think if anything, it just suffers by being not quite as good as its predecessor, the Sound of Madness. That album is a classic. It would have been hard for Shinedown to match, or definitely almost impossible to top it, in my opinion. And they didn't really try. They tried to keep some of the elements of Sound of Madness while also evolving their sound. They brought in more of the arena rock horse as they put it, uh, trying to maybe adhere more to the mainstream audience after the success they had with the single second chance off the previous album. So it's a kind of an evolution of that sound, and it's not quite the same quality for me. Maybe that's my taste. There'd probably be some people who think maybe Amaryllis is a better album, but I think you'll probably be in the minority, especially you definitely will based on the Spotify streams, which kind of tells a story with metrics. Ultimately, it is a good album, just living in the shadow a little bit of its predecessor. And with the album that follows this one, Threat of Survival, I think Amaryllis is seen in even more of a positive light because Threat of Survival generally is seen as a weaker album in terms of quality. Still got a couple of really good standout tracks that they still play live in a sets on that album, Threat of Survival. But overall, as an album start to finish, the quality is definitely less than Amaryllis. So fans of Shinedown do like Amaryllis. I like Amaryllis. It's just not as good as the predecessor. There's still some great tracks in here. I love the opening track Adrenaline. I love enemies. That was a major theme on a major TV show in WWE Raw for over a year, so obviously that did something right for them. You've got the hidden gem tracks I picked out, Nowhere Kids, and My Name Wearing Me Out, and for my sake, all great tracks. And then you've got some other tracks in here that maybe aren't to my personal taste, but they are to Shinedown fans' taste. Like the singles I'll Follow You and Unity being two of them. My wife says one of her favorite Shinedown songs is on this album, is Track 8 Miracle. It could have been a hidden gem, I just didn't quite choose it. For her, it probably would have been a hidden gem. So if you haven't heard Miracle and you like the same taste of music as my wife, apparently, then go check out Miracle. It's a lot of a it's probably one of the lighter tones, but not a ballad on the album. If that makes any sense. It's not soft and depressing. It's upbeat. It's happy, but it's still softer. It's not one of the heavier tracks, which probably my taste is gravitate towards. And that brings us to an end on this episode in our Shinedown series on Amaryllis episode four. Thank you so much for joining us on Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. Oh, please do join us for more. We've got a back catalogue building up slowly. We've got a full series complete on Iron Maiden going all the way up to Senjutsu. We've got the complete discography of Nightwish covered in our Nightwish series going all the way up to the most recent release, Yesterwind. All the hidden gems are picked out in both of their Iron Maiden and Nightwish's back catalogue, plus the stories being told of the band, and there's drama in both. You know, the Blaze Bailey era, you've got the Annette Olsen era of Nightwish and the departure of Tadia. It's all dramatic and stories that deserve to be told and are hopefully an entertaining listen. And we've got those hidden gem band series, we've got two on the back catalogue, we got the most interesting, unique band in the world, in my opinion, in the Diablo Swing Orchestra, which definitely deserves more credit than they do because they've covered so many different genres, uh fusions. If you ever listen to jazz or swing metal, you ever want to listen to gaming metal? You ever want to listen to music theater metal? It's got it all covered, and every song is unique on each and every one of their albums, and you can cover all of that in our Diablo Swing Orchestra series. And if you are more into your classic rock vibes, we've got a hidden gem band series on Northern Islands, The Answer. Great, great. Throw down to the classic rock of the 70s and 80s there from that band. Do go check them out if you are interested. My name is Daniel Stuckey. Thank you once again for listening to Rock and Metal's Hidden Gem Podcast. If you've got any recommendations of series you want us to cover, whether it's the well-known band, we're covering the hidden gem tracks from each album, or the hidden gem band you want us to showcase for you, just email into the email address in the podcast episode description. Thank you once again for listening. I'll see you hopefully on the next Shinedown episode. Bye bye.