STONE TEMPLE PILOTS: Stone Temple Pilots (2018) (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Stone Temple Pilots weren't expected to return to the scene so soon after the California-based band faced the worst with the loss of their last two singers, Scott Weiland in 2015 and Chester Bennington in 2017. After eighteen months of intense research, the DeLeo brothers have found the successor to these two strong artistic personalities in the person of Jeff Gutt, better known for his participation in the TV show The X-Factor than for his contribution to the band Dry Cells. Eight years after its sixth eponymous album, Stone Temple Pilots is back with another eponymous album with imagery symbolizing renewal and rebirth.

Stone Temple Pilots might not have been able to get up again, but from the first listening (and the following ones will only be confirmations), the band's will to show that the desire to play their music is clear. As if to shout out this rage to be still standing, "Stone Temple Pilots" starts with three radically rock tracks calibrated to hit the bull's eye immediately. The automatisms have not disappeared and Stone Temple Pilots unfolds what he does best by alternating direct and powerful tracks that resonate with the band's grunge accents like 'Roll Me Under', the rock formats with bluesy tones, notably in 'Never Enough' or 'Good Shoes', and the sensitive acoustic mid-tempi with 'Thought She'd Be Mine', the honeyed 'The Art Of Letting Go' or 'Reds & Blues' whose the final guitar duel is not to be missed.

The real unknown was of course the vocals and on this point too, this seventh album is totally reassuring. The presence of Gutt at the mike is obvious, as he perfectly integrated himself with the rest of the collective - maybe too much, perhaps, as his performances remind us of Weiland's. The difficulty of the task of succeeding such a vocal signature seems to have restrained Gutt, and he can't be blamed for this, preventing him from fully revealing all his potential in terms of originality and character. When he emancipates himself from the aura of his glorious elder, his interventions are very convincing and can leave one optimistic for the future of the band if it is written in the presence of Gutt.

The great strength of "Stone Temple Pilots" is its coherence and one can at most regret the presence of two or three titles above the lot intended to be anthems of the group. But after the upheaval the band has gone through in the last three years, it's almost natural that Californians want to reassure themselves by privileging classicism to the detriment of audacity. This in no way hinders the pleasure of this "Stone Temple Pilots" solid from start to finish. - Official website

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS (2018)

RHINO RECORDS

ROCK