![]() The title track serves as the on-the-nose criticism on cancel culture and censorship, “America Burning” not-so-subtly discusses how America is constantly divided and at arms with itself, “Clueless and Dramatic” takes aim at social media, misinformation and disinformation, while “The Saints of Violence and Innuendo” takes a shot on the George Floyd riots. The songs themselves are more or less Shinedown’s attempts at sending a message about specific topics. If anything, the whole record would’ve benefitted without these interludes, as they take away the consistency and the flow of the record as a way to tell a story that’s lacking…well a story. It’s important to note that the “concept” is really only told through several narrative interludes that frankly don’t really do anything other than describe the laws of the eponymous Planet Zero and that you’ll only be okay if you say what the rulers want. The “concept” of Planet Zero is really nothing more than your typical Orwellian theme of an alien planet where you’re given a tour of said planet as you’re being shown how oppressive it is when it comes to free speech and thought. Here, the record takes shots at social media, cancel culture, government censorship, and the overall violations of human rights via limiting free speech, topics that every Fox News watcher/Trump supporting sweaty, obese white guy in their 50s or 60s often cry about. What’s not that big of a surprise however, is the somewhat right-wing slant that Shinedown has presented in their latest record, Planet Zero. ![]() That being said however, it’s hard not to see the temptation to not do so given the lyrical goldmine that’s been given to these musicians. Yet overall, Shinedown have shied away from creating a full on politically motivated record, something that more and more bands of their ilk have been doing in recent years. Bush and the ongoing war in Iraq at the time. They’ve made an occasional statement here and there, most notably the lead single “Devour” off of 2008’s The Sound of Madness being Smith’s hatred towards then-president George W. In a sense it’s somewhat odd for Shinedown to make a political album. And now it’s Shinedown’s turn to drive the political train in what lead singer Brent Smith describes as their “controversial” album. As a result, we’ve seen (and heard) numerous amounts of artists of many different genres attempting to capitalize on the turmoil by releasing a lot of politically driven music over the past couple of years. ![]() From the pandemic, warfare, nuclear threats, conspiracy theories, and the overall toxic political climate, 2022 is ripe with so many problems where we feel so powerless to stop them, and music seems to be one of the main things that people have been turning to as a means to escape the world of today. That was four years ago, and within that span it ultimately seems like a completely different world. The last time that we had heard of anything new related to Shinedown was back in 2018 when they released Attention Attention. Review Summary: "They're cancelling your feelings"
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