{"id":16527,"date":"2012-01-10T18:01:51","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T23:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=16527"},"modified":"2013-01-19T08:05:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-19T13:05:10","slug":"anchored-listen-to-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/anchored-listen-to-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Anchored | Listen To This<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen<\/span>
\nStaff Writer —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"With riffs large enough to rattle a cruise ship and more hooks than a fishing derby, Anchored could very well be the next big thing in modern hard rock. Not because they\u2019re particularly fresh or innovative or bring anything new to the game, but for exact opposite reasons \u2014they\u2019re precisely what fans of the genre have come to expect, they rarely deviate from the accepted formula, and they are about as experimental as a shy girl in bed with a guy for the first time.<\/p>\n

So creativity is not in Anchored\u2019s compositional structure, but that said, they play their chosen style of commercial rock very well. There is nothing rebellious or dangerous about them, dulling their credibility with the old-school crowd down to somewhere south of zero, but that is not the audience Anchored is aiming for. Instead, these guys are catering to the Nickelback crowd and that is exactly the crowd that will eat this up. In fact, the executives over at EMI Music chowed down on Anchored\u2019s hard rock platter and liked the taste so much that they signed the band and plan to reissue this album with new artwork and a new marketing campaign on January 24, 2012.<\/p>\n

The first single the band released as an indie unit was \u201cDirty in Texas\u201d and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then somewhere Chad Kroeger\u2019s ego is massively tumescent, because the song borrows heavily from the Nickelback playbook. With its banging groove and powerfully infectious chorus, you can expect this song to soon be blaring in stripper joints all across the Lone Star State. A slightly altered version, called \u201cRowdy in Texas,\u201d has already been licensed by the Dallas Cowboys so they can crank it up at home games, proof that the song is a certified arena rocker.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s first single from their EMI Music rerelease is \u201cSavior,\u201d which the label is giving a major push with an \u201cexplicit\u201d Hugh Heffner-approved music video featuring a gorgeous and at times topless Playboy model exposing flashes of R-rated skin. The lyrics match the sexuality: \u201cHey, pretty baby, won\u2019t you come in \/ There\u2019s always room for angels in my den of sin.\u201d Hinder would definitely give this one the old thumbs up\u2026though if they just finished watching the rather arousing video, you may want to ask them where those thumbs have been.<\/p>\n

As the album progresses, you will hear some Skillet, some Burn Halo, some Saving Abel\u2026you get the idea. Anchored makes no apology for targeting mainstream rock radio, borrowing from the biggest names in the genre because they want to be one of the biggest names in the genre. They slip in a little southern rock heat once in a while to spice things up but that is as cutting edge as it gets. Luckily, while they may not be doing anything different than a bazillion other bands have done before, they are doing it better than most. The front half of the album is better than the back\u2014the band definitely blow their load around the midpoint\u2014but even that is in keeping with modern rock trends, which tend to overload the front of albums with the radio hits and bloat the back with fluff and filler.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, the band\u2019s sound is firmly anchored on modern hard rock turf and this review can easily be summed up thusly: if you enjoy groups like Nickelback, Hinder, Black Stone Cherry, etc., then you\u2019ll enjoy this one as well. But if you would rather amputate your ears with a hacksaw than punish them with modern rock that panders to the mainstream, well, either avoid this album like a vegan avoiding veal or head down to the tool section of your local hardware store.<\/p>\n

Genre: Modern Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nBrandan Narrell (vocals)
\nJoel Estes (guitar, vocals)
\nJosh Franklin (bass, vocals)
\nMatt Clark (drums, vocals)
\nB.G. Simpson (guitar, vocals)<\/p>\n

Track Listing
\n1. Dirty in Texas
\n2. Savior
\n3. We Had Everything
\n4. By Your Side
\n5. Last Night
\n6. Bad Timing
\n7. Save Me
\n8. All That
\n9. You
\n10. Miss Stress
\n11. My World<\/p>\n

Webpage: www.getanchored.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: Independent<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Allen Staff Writer — With riffs large enough to rattle a cruise ship and more hooks than a fishing derby, Anchored could very well be the next big thing in modern hard rock. […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[336,2939,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-16527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-cd","8":"tag-modern-hard-rock","9":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}