The Birds of Satan
The Birds of Satan
Release Date: Apr 15, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Metal, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Stoner Metal
Record label: Shanabelle Records
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Album Review: The Birds of Satan by The Birds of Satan
Fairly Good, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
A baby gurgles over a clattering drum roll before nine minutes of dramatic metal riffage and hulking prog licks, and so begins the first album from The Birds of Satan, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins’ side project. This ambitious Queens Of The Stone Age flavoured opener, ‘The Ballad Of The Birds Of Satan’, is a strutting slice of Californian metal that’s strangely misrepresentative of the rest of the record. The six tracks that follow are much easier to digest, sharing Foos’ commercial guitar leanings while gleefully paying homage to Hawkins’ heroes Dio, Van Halen and Queen.
Based on rating 7/10
The eponymous full-length debut from Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins' side project, 2014's The Birds of Satan is a full-bodied alt-metal and hard rock recording. Hawkins and Chevy Metal members vocalist/bassist Wiley Hodgden and guitarist Mick Murphy deliver a batch of songs combining the muscular intellectualism of Queens of the Stone Age with the melodic passion of Foo Fighters. Included on the album is the single "Thanks for the Line." .
Based on rating 3/5
The debut album by Birds of Satan, a side project of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, sounds like every LP from Hawkins' teenage record collection playing at the same time. He and his bandmates – who also play with him in another side project, Chevy Metal – dabble in Queen-style operatic choruses, Cheap Trick power-pop melodies and a whole lotta Led Zep boogie. Hawkins even channels the jazz-fusion drum break from Run-DMC's "Peter Piper" in "Thanks for the Line." That sort of eclecticism is both the best and worst thing about Birds of Satan: While its seven songs all go down easy, they can also feel like sensory overload.
Based on rating 6/10
Side-project: a dirty phrase, perhaps? Too often we've seen sojourns made by members of prominent bands into solo territory that have made us wish that they’d just stuck to the day job. But it appears that you can’t button a musician’s creativity even as said day job rumbles on in the background. That's the case in point for Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who’s stepped out with this avian inferno-entitled project while his main band gradually thinks about putting together their eighth studio album.
Based on rating C
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins got his moment when his original composition, “Cold Day in the Sun”, made the acoustic side of the band’s 2006 album, In Your Honor. “For a drummer, you’re not a bad singer,” jokes Dave Grohl sarcastically after every live performance of the song. He knows full well that his drummer is a secret weapon of a vocalist.
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