Kobra and the Lotus – Evolution

The singles themselves show a departure from the band’s metal sound, being very rockish and groovy, but also pretty formulaic, and by-the-numbers, especially “Burn” and “Get the f*ck out of here”. The anthemic “Thundersmith” is a bit better, as it is less generic but still pretty groovy.

Even so, I cannot deny that musically this album sounds pretty good, blending hard rock with heavy metal into a dynamic, high-energy album, which has a slight trace of Shinedown (think “Sound of Madness” or even a bit of “Amaryllis”). As such, “Evolution” is full to the brim with melody, hooky vocal lines, massive drums and shredding guitars, thanks to Kobra Paige’s vocal prowess as well as the band’s ability to mix the energy of hard rock with the aggressiveness of heavy metal into a fluid and cohesive sound. And there are some solid moments to be found on this offering, like the beautiful ballad “Wash Away”, the theatrical number that is “Circus”, the high-energy feel of “We come undone” or the neat choruses of “Liar” and “Wounds”.

 Kobra Paige has some fascinating vocal moments, like on the aforementioned “Wash Away” or on the chorus of “We come undone”, but I feel like some of her vocals were overproduced (and I don’t mean this in the sense of vocal layering), which makes some songs sound emotionless, even impersonal, and again I am pointing mainly to the singles. The guitars are so much in the forefront, making a lot of noise and delivering great melodies and solos along the way (case in point: “Circus”), being the backbone of this album, alongside the massive drums, made evident by the intro to “In the end”. The opening riffs of the title track are as melodic as they are heavy.