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✦✦✧✧ I was going to say that this isn’t half bad, but that’s the problem: it’s exactly half bad. The riffs are tasty and groovy (if forgettable), and speak to Chad Kroeger’s metal tendencies. But his vocals and lyrics are just so schmaltzy. And then there are the unforgivably saccharin intentional hits; “Song On Fire,” “After The Rain,” and their ilk constitute the kind of music I’d hear while driving quickly through some place I wouldn’t want to linger. Or maybe music I’d hear on The Voice, and then forget about. Fortunately, those songs are not the album’s mainstay. There are otherwise glimmers of greatness here, if you know where to look (the first two tracks, plus “The Betrayal – Act III”). All in all, good for a selective listen with liberal use of the skip button, but that’s about it.

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