Billy Talent
Billy Talent III
Play Billy Talent III
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AMG Review of Billy Talent III
Jason Lymangrover
All Music GuideAdding swampy blues-rock and down-home muscle riffs to their punk-pop template, Billy Talent's third album, aptly titled Billy Talent III, owes as much to Zeppelin rock stomps as it does to latter-day Green Day. In the start of "Rusted from the Rain," vocalist Ben Kowalewicz sounds like a dead ringer for Billie Joe Armstrong in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," but by the grungy, drop-D chorus of "Crush me like a flower, rusted in the rain/Strip me of my power, beat me with a chain" bombast kicks in and it's more like Jeff Buckley fronting Soundgarden. If it sounds like the Ontario quartet has replaced their Buzzcocks-influenced art-punk roots, it's because they have. It's a questionable move, but songs like "Tears into Wine" show that Billy Talent's venture into biting arena rock shows promise. While the songs are slicker and less snide, they're surely not obvious or easily calculated. The group's still too beefy and weird to fit the emo-pop label. It's common for punk groups to turn face and go this softer route, and while Billy Talent might be on this path, especially with Warped Tour gigs, for now it seems like they're intent on carving their own niche. The problem is that the music often becomes pulled in too many directions. When they try their hand at reggae-rock in the "Can't Stand Losing You"-reminiscent "Diamond in a Landmine" it sounds forced, and "The Dead Can't Testify" includes a confusing juxtaposition of minstrel hammerchord and metal grooves. Strangely though, when they stretch farthest away from their origins, as they do on the plodding power ballad "Sudden Movements," their sound takes a turn for the best.
CD Review: Billy Talent ~ Billy Talent III
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Written by: Nic GouveiaIf you’re ever in Toronto, there’s a classless little bar on the corner of Bathurst and Richmond and if you’re lucky enough to find it, you can spot members of the downtown music scene pounding back some of the world’s worst poured drinks. Regulars include members of Billy Talent and given the [...]
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Listen to Billy Talent III
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Billy Talent are releasing their third album today in the U.K. and Monday/Tuesday in the rest of the world but you don’t have to wait the whole weekend to hear Billy Talent III. They are streaming the album on various web-sites, giving you a chance to preview before you buy.In Canada, you can hear the [...]
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CD Review: Billy Talent ~ Billy Talent III
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Artist:
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Album:
Written by: Nic GouveiaIf you’re ever in Toronto, there’s a classless little bar on the corner of Bathurst and Richmond and if you’re lucky enough to find it, you can spot members of the downtown music scene pounding back some of the world’s worst poured drinks. Regulars include members of Billy Talent and given the [...]
More >
Billy Talent: Billy Talent III
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Moving past the obvious anachorism of Billy Talent III being their fourth album, technically speaking, there are a few more issues which cloud our mind here. Cards on the table time, this is an album we wanted to love. The staples of their second album, the one which reached the upper echelons of popularity, have been lodged in our collective consciousness for so long that they can now legitima...
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 "Billy Talent III")
