POP EVIL
Versatile EONE
Arena-aiming rockers buff up their credentials
MICHIGAN’S POP EVIL
have claimed their seat among today’s most reliably popular mainstream rock acts with a radio-friendly blend of melodic hooks and catchy choruses balanced with heavy doses of pop and R&B. Over the past decade, they’ve garnered enviable radio exposure and scored hundreds of millions of streams. And yet, when summer festival season arrives, it’s the Five Finger Death Punches and Avenged Sevenfolds of the world claiming headliner status while Pop Evil slog away on the second stages. With their sixth and latest effort, they hope to change that.
Versatile opens with an absolute banger. Let The Chaos Reign unleashes a crushing industrial riff as vocalist Leigh Kakaty channels his inner Zack de la Rocha to masterful effect. The remainder of the album sees Pop Evil focusing on highly polished pop rockers with anthemic choruses, like Stronger (The Time Is Now), Set Me Free and Raise Your Flag. Leigh’s vocals have never sounded better and there’s enough diversity here to allow him to explore his considerable vocal range, from the rapping cadence of Work to the towering climax of Same Blood to the bruising balladry of Inferno.
Lyrically, Versatile exposes Leigh’s insistence on packing as many dreary clichés as possible into each album and Pop Evil’s reliance on studio polish and the well-trodden formulae of mainstream rock is somewhat disappointing. To say they played it safe here would be a huge understatement. But to their credit, the album’s diversity suggests that they’re not afraid to risk alienating hard rock fans in favour of evolving more popular styles, not unlike Linkin Park.
Ultimately, Versatile is their most mature outing yet. While breaking no new ground, their gift for crafting soaring, audience-friendly anthems is immense and as the album’s first few singles suggest, this might well be the one that nudges them onto the main stage. ■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed,
Papa Roach
JOE DALY