Swan Songs

Lyrics
add a review/comment
Add an audio file
17/20
Band Name Hollywood Undead
Album Name Swan Songs
Type Album
Released date 02 September 2008
Produced by Erlichman Aron
Music StyleFusion
Members owning this album105

Tracklist

1.
 Undead
 04:25
2.
 Sell Your Soul
 03:14
3.
 Everywhere I Go
 03:30
4.
 No Other Place
 03:16
5.
 No. 5
 03:05
6.
 Young
 03:16
7.
 Black Dahlia
 03:46
8.
 This Love, This Hate
 03:57
9.
 Bottle and a Gun
 03:22
10.
 California
 03:17
11.
 City
 03:34
12.
 The Diary
 04:35
13.
 Pimpin'
 03:07
14.
 Paradise Lost
 03:11

Total playing time: 49:35



Collector's Edition
15.
 Pain
 02:41
16.
 The Natives
 03:40
17.
 Knife Called Lust
 02:59
18.
 The Loss
 03:15
19.
 Bitches
 03:30
20.
 The Kids
 03:01
21.
 Circles
 03:33
22.
 Black Dahlia (Buffalo Bill Remix)
 03:50
23.
 Black Dahlia (Lo Fidelity Allstars Remix)
 04:32
24.
 Black Dahlia (The Pharmacy Remix)
 03:46

Total playing time: 34:47

Buy this album

 $29.50  38,99 €  31,15 €  £14.89  $39.86  17,61 €  35,99 €
Spirit of Metal is reader-supported. When you buy through the links on our site we may earn an affiliate commission

Hollywood Undead


Review @ vikingman369

20 July 2011

Too heavy for rap, too rap for nu metal: they are themselves

Once in a long while, you get these bands that defy everything you knew, or thought you knew, about music and genres. Hollywood Undead may not be that band, but they're damn close enough. These "six crazy MCs" walk a tightrope between rap and metal, on the one hand being even less metal than nu metal and yet too heavy for rap (believe me, I have never found a single HU album in the hip-hop/rap section of any music store, and I mean the real music stores, not Wal-Mart).

For those who are new to this band, let's take a look at them. This is the "classic" line-up of Hollywood Undead, the one many fans yearn to see again. Drums are handled by the one in the white kabuki mask, Da Kurlzz, while guitars (yes, they have guitars) are handled by J-Dog and backing vocalist Charlie Scene, who sounds a little like Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park. But don't let that fool you, if anyone sounds "scene" its Johnny 3-Tears, who's backing vocals always sound like he's on the verge of shedding the three tears of his name-sake. The main vocalist, often called "The Pro-Deuce-er" is the lead singer, and his singing sounds in between straight rock and ballsier post-hardcore. But let's not forget the homey Funny Man, "a baritone with a voice so low, it'll make your speakers explode." Once again showing that baritones can sing fun lyrics, even if your speakers can withstand Funny Man's voice, you will enjoy every minute of his singing (and though he sounds black, he's part-Hispanic actually).

First track kicks off with a synthesized version of Randy Rhoads' iconic "Crazy Train" riff, as the band shows that they're the real thing and they mean business. They're giving the finger to the haters, and between 3-Tears' emotional statement to Scene laying it down like it is (telling haters to "slit your wrists, get pissed and then go jump off a bridge"), "Undead" has got to be one of the most memorable tracks on this album. It's a good way to start. The music video for this song was directed by Jonas Åkerlund, former drummer of black/viking metal band Bathory and director of videos from metal giants like Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Rammstein. As per his particular talent, it's another R-rated video that you cannot find the unedited version anywhere on YouTube. But I challenge you to look it up, it's totally worth it and it's got all the balls and raunchiness of Motörhead...just without Lemmy's epic mole and handle-bar chops.

"Everywhere I Go" is another memorable song from the Swan Songs album, and is another party-tune like "Rock Out" by Motörhead. If you get the Desperate Measures double-disc set, you get to hear the Castle Renholder Remix of this song - not a dance tune, but something that sounds more rock-ish, with loud, distorted guitars. Mr. Scene might be singing about all the same stuff that every other rap artist does (banging chicks), but, hey, black and power metal sing about the same things so much that they have become cliche themselves, so let's just give these six a break, pop open a forty and enjoy this party-song like there's no tomorrow.

This album has lots of high (Funny Man's singing on "No Other Place" and "Bottle and a Gun") and low points (3-Tears almost crying on "Black Dahlia"), and other points where they really start sounding like Linkin Park ("Young" in particular). But Linkin Park is nu metal and alt. rock of a certain. Too heavy for rap, too rap for nu metal: Hollywood Undead is unique, they are themselves. After all, what else would you say for a rap-rock band that covered a Led Zeppelin song? ("Immigrant Song" on their Desperate Measures box-set, even complete with that damn-annoying vocalization.). Maybe I'm not the right person to be talking about this album, since it doesn't really stick out for me. But where it does, it's definitely worth at least a once-over.

1 Comment

1 Like

Share
Crinn - 14 July 2012: How dare you even THINK of comparing these guys to pre-2004 Linkin Park, these guys don't even COMPARE. I loved this album when it came out and I was in middle school and I was excited by the fact that I was listening to music with tons of bad words and bad messages. But now that I go back to this, I see nothing but one of the most immature rap albums of all-time. Yes, the singer is pretty good, but other than that, (I seem to be a broken record now), WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? How could you call yourself "one of the last sane metalheads out there"??
    You must be logged in to add a comment