Foo Fighters: “Do They Still Have it in Them to Rock?”

Foo Fighters have been a household name in the world of rock music for around sixteen years now and are hoping to release their seventh album this year. It would be fair to assert that their previous two efforts have been slightly disappointing for the hardcore fan as apart from a few decent singles, the music has become stale. Despite this, the Foos’ have generally sold more albums with each new record, arguably because their music has become increasingly radio friendly.

However, there is now genuine excitement for the original Foo Fighters fans, who enjoyed the raw, self-titled debut album and the ear bending The Colour & The Shape. Lead singer Dave Grohl has revealed that the new album, due out before the festival season, will sound ‘massive’. The former Nirvana drummer has reunited with Butch Vig who produced Nirvana’s classic Nevermind in the early nineties and Vig has stripped back the music to help it become heavier, using as little computer technology as possible.

The album, as of yet untitled, was recorded in Grohl’s garage and will not contain any acoustic orchestration or ballads, but just pure, hard, rock music.

Does the band still have what it takes though? Grohl has a strong love of pop music and the Washington hardcore punk scene that he grew up with, will now be a far and distant memory. Despite this, it seems that Grohl has somewhat rediscovered his roots. The Foo Fighters recently took a two year hiatus which allowed Grohl to step back behind the drums for Them Crooked Vultures and it appears that during this time the 41-year-old enjoyed being part of a band who did not care for fancy effects or quiet, reflective songs.

There are fears that Foo Fighters have progressed too far from their raw beginnings and that they are unable to produce heavy songs with a melodic hook. A prime example of how it can go all wrong would be Feeder’s latest album Renegades. The band ditched the acoustic guitars, cranked up the distortion pedal and found themselves looking a little silly with a lot of noise, but little quality.

However, faith must be placed in Grohl and company. They are intelligent musicians whose experience in this sector of the music industry is second to none. Let’s hope for rock gold!

Check out the song: “The Pretender”