Outloud
Virtual Hero Society

So, Outloud was the band of choice these last few days and it is a band I have reviewed a few times now and truth be told I have never really been impressed. Now they are coming with Virtual Hero Society, sort of a comment on how we live so much online these days – it is also a funny little retro thing when shortened; VHS, I remember those. But what about the album then, is it any better than the previous ones I have written about? Sure it is.

It is catchy melodic hardrock, AOR, just like always. And like usual they don’t really offer anything we haven’t heard, several parts feel severely plagiarised from other bands I have heard. The production is quite excellent though, decent vocalist. The variation is more or less what can be expected and they do offer songs with strong hit potential and a catchy nature. But they do take the tried and tested routes and never really dares to think outside any box, or virtual reality thing. But sure, they do it really well and had they arrived at the scene with this at the same time as Journey broke through they would have blown them out of the water big time – but they did arrive now when this has been done to death already and it almost doesn’t matter how good you are if you aren’t offering any originality and these guys don’t.

This album is catchy as hell and I really enjoy listening to it, the problem is just that I forget it completely when not listening to it. So, it may be catchy and all but not very memorable and that can be a problem for the album. But when I listen I forget all about that and just enjoy the album so I am quite sure that fans of the melodic hardrock or AOR will find this most appealing, fans of Outloud will do so as well. And I think that the impressions are mostly positive despite the album being rather forgettable and what they do has been done countless times before.

The plagiaries in some songs feel a bit much but in the end it is still fairly enjoyable and I doubt many buyers will see it as a disappointment, I actually think it is the best album that Outloud has done so far.

HHHHHHH