Foo Fighters

“Can you hear me? Hear me screaming?” Not only are these the first words uttered from the mouth of Foo Fighters lead singer Dave Grohl on the opening title track of In Your Honor, but they also pretty much sum up the entire first disc of the double album. The brilliance that is Dave Grohl is back with the Foo Fighters’ fifth studio album, an ambitious twenty track double album that features one disc of some of the hardest rock the band has ever done and another disc of some very soft acoustic numbers. While the acoustic disc will be covered in a different review, the ten songs on In Your Honor’s hard rock disc rank right up there with some of Grohl and the Foo Fighters’ best work to date.

As previously mentioned, Grohl and the rest of the Foo Fighters come out fighting right away on In Your Honor’s title track. As the guitars fade in and Grohl starts shouting the lyrics, it becomes evident that there will be nothing resembling soft or wimpy songs on this disc. This song starts off the album very well and it features some of Grohl’s best screams ever. The next track “No Way Back” is another solid song featuring more shouting, but this time Grohl bothered to write a bit of a melody. In Your Honor’s first single “Best Of You” comes next and despite more yelling from Grohl, he sounds incredibly passionate and fervent in singing the song’s lyrics. Even though the song isn’t quite as good, “Best Of You” is quite reminiscent of two of the band’s classics, “My Hero” and “Everlong.” Perhaps my favorite song on disc one comes next, the straight forward rocker “DOA.” The song features some very hard pounding on the drums from Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and some excellent verses from Grohl. The next track, the two minute long “Hell” is the weakest song on In Your Honor’s first disc. Grohl basically screams for the whole two minutes and the song just seems like filler.

The second half of disc one gets underway with “The Last Song,” another decent song, but is perhaps one of the weakest tracks lyrically on the album. By the seventh song “Free Me” you might be wondering in amazement how Grohl actually was able to record the vocals on this album without completely destroying his vocal chords. And while “Free Me” is another solid song, it is not quite as strong as the next two tracks. “Resolve” features one of the disc’s best choruses and definitely could be another single. “The Deepest Blues Are Black” features another great chorus and surprise, surprise, more throat shattering screaming from Grohl. The disc’s closer “End Over End” is ok, but definitely not worth skipping ahead too. The song drags on a bit too long, but is by no means a bad song.

Dave Grohl has done it again. In Your Honor’s first disc is a solid collection of some of the best hard rock (with a melodic twist) that you will find. Grohl and company pound away at their instruments as hard as they can and instead of sounding forced or hard just for the sake of being hard, it blends beautifully. Stay tuned for the review of In Your Honor’s second disc coming very soon.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

DISC 1
01. In Your Honor
02. No Way Back
03. Best of You
04. DOA
05. Hell
06. The Last Song
07. Free Me
08. Resolve
09. The Deepest Blues Are Black
10. End Over End

Run Time: 40:05