Sixx:A.M. – This Is Gonna Hurt

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Like they did with their debut album The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack the band featuring Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx and Guns N’ Roses guitarist DJ Ashba have based their second album on a new book by Sixx, of the same title. This time, while Sixx and co. no doubt put as much sincerity into these songs as they did before, that doesn’t come across nearly as strongly in the finished product. Exceptions are Goodbye My Friends, triumphant Live Forever to an extent (and at track four it has the first really great riff of the album as well) and Oh My God, but the record as a whole doesn’t convey the outpouring of emotion as tangibly as The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack did, and that was what made that record so special. Musically they’ve managed to achieve the same sound and while James Michael still sings with the same pained tones in his voice, the songs are not the same painful subjects, so it just doesn’t ring as true. Instead tracks like Lies of The Beautiful People and especially Are You With Me Now? and horrible radio-ready ballads Sure Feels Right and Smile simply sound like a lot of other slightly-melancholic modern melodic rock. The raw emotion is missing. There are good songs, like the brooding darkness of Deadlihood and emotive, wonderfully poignant, and actually genuine ballad Skin, so there’ll be enough for existing fans to like, but The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack was a special album, This Is Gonna Hurt is just a good one.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Sixx:A.M.