Stephen
Hailmary seemed to fly with the wind to a new place, a new sound to be exact, after 'Lottery of Life' EP that was released in late 2008. After choosing to abandon the thick Seattle grungy scent of the 90s, Hailmary tried to adapt to the 80s style, making them pretty similar to bands like Nickelbeck or Alter Bridge. This, perhaps, was intended to reach a wider audience, or even a different one, but I'm not very familiar with their early release, so I can't compare anything and gonna focus only on these five tracks instead.
"Live And Breath" opened with a downtempo uptempo groove, the riffage pattern was derived from Alice In Chains, but swirled with the real hard rock touch. This and "Bringing Out The Best" are my most fave tracks of the album. "Bringing" sounded more 80s but didn't lose the modern touch. "You Ain't The Man" is quite good, but "Don't Believe Everything You Fear" is very average, nothing's punchy, nothing's big about it. "Lottery of Life" is a good power ballad, it has a bluesy feel attached to it, but I don't see it has the potential to break through any chart.
Kevin Curran’s vocal is mostly baritone, surfing at mid range, very common with alternative music. The musicianship is also okay, straight forward playing style, but sadly I don't see big flashy guitar solos or acrobatic drumming that should have made the songs more colorful. Hailmary, as a five years old band, was still in the learning process. I’ve seen their seeds started to grow, but perhaps in a short couple years of time and not million days away, the full length debut will surprise me even more, as long as they stick to what they like and what they're capable of.