Band : Hollywood Undead
Album Title : American Tragedy (Deluxe Edition)
Label : A&M - Octone
Distributor : Universal Records
Release date : 08/04/2011
Release : CD

Yeah momma, one of my favourite (if not the favourite) “Rap Rock” acts returns with its sophomore album, and although their debut was quite a success, the band members were not afraid of subtle changes...but first an update.

Following the May 2009 European release of their debut album Swan Songs (our review was posted 25/04/2009, with a decent history-of-the-band culled from Wikipedia to boot) the band saw the release of the EP Swan Songs: B-Sides in June 2009, the 4 songs of which were previously available as bonus tracks on different editions of the debut album. In November 2009 followed the CD/DVD box set Desperate Measures, featuring 3 new songs, 3 cover songs, a remix of one of the album's songs, and 6 live versions of previously released tracks. The DVD included video material from 2 live appearances of the band. And the band's rising popularity is portrayed by the fact that the CD/DVD peaked at #29 in the Billboard 200 charts. In 2010 followed 2 more EPs. First the on-line only Swan Songs Rarities (consisting of 3 remastered songs that were released on the band's MySpace before the release of the debut album, with “The Kids” being the band's very first posting). Secondly came the Black Dahlia EP (featuring 3 remixes of the song by the same title on the debut album). But that was not the only thing that happened in 2010. Very early in the year the band's singer Deuce saw himself voted out of the band, to be replaced by touring member and long-time friend Danny (full name Daniel Murillo, he was an American Idol contestant in its 9th season and the lead singer of Lorene Drive). On the same occasion rhythm guitarist/ singer & keyboards, synths and programs handler J-Dog (together with Duece he was one of the band's two founders) switched to the bass.  On April first of last year the band started its own iheartradiostation, with horror and thriller tales. A bit later confirmations came that the band had already written most of the material for a new album, again to be recorded (which in fact happened between June and November) with producer Don Gilmore. With no official release date at hand (original news was for the album to appear in the Fall), HU started a live promotional campaign, co-headlining the Nightmare After Christmas Tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Stone Sour.

The album's first single “Hear Me Now” (cited by J-Dogas his favourite HU song) was released for radio on the band's MySpace page on December 13, then made available online as digital single a good week later. Days after release the single made it to #2 on the iTunes Rock Chart. On January 21 the band released a new song off the album with “Comin' in Hot”, making it available for free download. On February 6, the band released the track “Been to Hell” as a free download The album's release, originally planned for March 8, was eventually pushed back to April 5th in the US. Within the first week of its release, the new album sold over 70,000 copies (in comparison, the debut went “only” 21,000 copies), making it peak at #4 on the Billboard 200 charts, and leading it to #2 in many other charts.

Stylistically, the music on the new album, as compared to the debut album, is both “heavier” and more complex, in that there's simply more music to listen to! At the same time the vocals are even more harmonic than before. The overall darker lyrical content brings yet another change...but the band doesn't forget to throw in some humour as well (check the self-critical “Apologize”). Funny thing is, whether you like the band better now or not depends on your personal feelings...as clearly prooven by the way American critics looked at the album. Personally, I obviously like the guys even better than before, and where I had some reservations about Swan Songs, I'm now propelling American Tragedy to the top of my “Rap Rock” year-lists! To find out how you feel about the new material, the band posted 30-minute samples of no less than 12 of the album's “normal” songs at (www.) myspace.com/hollywoodundead, alongside a video for the aforementioned “Been To Hell”. Go check it out, and do it now!

Oh, forgot to mention: a shitload of guest musicians on this album! 4 drummers, guitarist John 5, 3 singers, and 4 guys adding either programming, keyboards, or both (and one of 'em also adding guitar). On top, the band made use of two outsider songwriters. Production-wize Don Gilmore was assisted/ replaced by no less than 5 more guys, each one of 'em adding as either composer, or musician (programming, extra guitar, extra keyboards, extra bass, extra strings...you name it)...no wonder the album is so comfortably filled with music! And, one thing more: this Deluxe Edition has 4 bonus tracks, making the album last a little over 66 minutes in total!

98/100

Tony.