Fuel - Angels & Devils Review Aug 18 '07    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line It's big. It's loud. It's aggressive. Sadly, Fuel is still stuck writing about the horrors of post-breakup life...yawn. Pros: Two or three genuinely engaging rockers. Cons: Twelve songs of pure girlfriend angst. Oh the joy. The last four years have been a rough time for Fuel. Only a year after the release of 2003's Natural Selection, the band was severed in half with the departure of vocalist Brett Scallions and drummer Kevin Miller. Natural Selection didn't live up to the sales success of the group's double platinum selling sophomore effort, Something Like Human. Undeterred, Fuel enlisted Toryn Green as their new frontman, and following the recording of Angels & Devils, former Godsmack drummer Tommy Stewart signed up for the newly refurbished hard rock quartet. Most listeners will remember Fuel from their smash hit singles Shimmer and Hemorrhage (In My Hands). Nowhere on their latest album does the band come close to matching the success of either of those songs. In fact, Angels & Devils is remarkably hit-less. There are a couple better-than-average numbers to be found, but the album is utterly devoid of any big time songs. You know, the songs that you instantly gravitate toward when you first pop the CD in. This album struggles to produce even one standout song, thanks to the endless storm of power chords and the hear-me-roar mentality of Toryn Green. The band's website claims that Angels & Devils "isn't a comeback, it's an ambitious step forward." I beg to differ. Throughout the album, the listener is bombarded by the angry musings of Carl Bell, who serves as the guitarist and lead songwriter. This guy makes Jonathan Davis look like Ned Flanders. The lead single, Wasted Time, is a good barometer for what the lyrics on this album will be like. Take the chorus lines for example: " 'Cause everything's broken Everything's vacant Everything's wasted time again Sentiments hopeless Innocence jaded Everything's wasted time again" After wading through forty-two minutes of non-stop woe-is-me/girlfriend angst, most veteran rock listeners are liable to feel exhausted and depressed by the sheer weight of resentment that Bell pours out on this album. Adding insult to injury is Bell's decision to record one loud, angry song after another, with nary a ballad to break the tension. There's no Bad Day or Innocent to be found here. Ironically, when Bell does employ an acoustic guitar during the incredibly catchy Scars in the Making, it ends up contributing to the album's best song. Despite a myriad of problems, Angels & Devils is not completely inept. The blistering opener Gone gets high marks for a superb chorus and furious pace. I Should Have Told You is a wobbly tune rescued by a thundering bridge, complete with Green’s cutting snarl and a wicked (though disappointingly brief) solo. Bell relinquishes songwriting duties on Halos of the Son, which boasts crisp dynamics and strong vocal hooks. The closer, Angels Take a Soul features a moody intro that segues to the more familiar riff-heavy territory, but Green’s determined performance makes the song rise above the rest. In other areas, the anemic songwriting and merciless power chords threaten to bludgeon the listener into submission. Leave the Memories Alone hauls out every tired cliche known to man, with an equally predictable musical backdrop to boot. Forever begins with the lines "F*ck the way I feel right now/ I'll never feel this anymore/ Shut the feelings all right down/ I'll never need them anymore" and things only get worse from there. An obstacle that soon becomes apparent is Toryn Green's vocal range. His coarse delivery is fine enough for the big, muscular choruses, but when a song calls for a softer approach, he flounders miserably. Elsewhere, songs range from forgettable (Again) to filler (Mess). Taken as a whole, Fuel's fourth full-length release leaves a lot to be desired. New vocalist Toryn Green lacks the flexibility of the departed Brett Scallions, and he attempts to cover up his shortcomings by simply yelling incessantly. The lack of diversity among the album's twelve tracks means they begin to bleed into one another on a regular basis. Last but not least is the weary subject matter put forth by Carl Bell. We live in a world where disease and famine take an enormous toll on humans across the globe, and yet, Fuel continues to churn out songs embroiled in despair and self-pity. Listeners should rightly ask: is this all you have to say? A rock band with potentially millions of listeners can't find some new lyrical territory to explore? Until the musicianship and the songwriting receive a strong injection of originality, you would be wise to take a pass on Angels & Devils.

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