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New Release: Pennywise ‘All or Nothing’
Pennywise fans rejoice! Your friends from Hermosa Beach have finally released their first album since 2008′s, Reason to Believe. The new album entitled, All or Nothing is the first since longtime frontman Jim Lindberg left the band in 2009. Ok, ok I know what your thinking; WTF, but Lindberg left the band after 20 years and lets face it spending 20 years with the same people, playing the same songs, and touring together in close confines is a pretty damn good run for any band. Also, tons of bands have successfully transitioned from one lead singer to another and come out the other side intact and perhaps even stronger.
After Lindberg’s departure the band tried out about 50-60 people for the position. According to Fletcher, the decision was obvious after the auditions ended and your new Pennywise lead singer is, (drum roll please) Zoli Teglas. If that name sounds familiar it should, because he is the lead singer from Ignite and has toured with the Misfits. He also has one of the most distinct voices in the Punk / Hardcore scene. The BIG question is how will it mesh with the Pennywise sound that everyone is so used to.
The first track entitled “All or Nothing” is classic Pennywise. Driving bass between charging guitar riffs which can’t be mistaken for anything else. Zoli even kind of sounds like Jim at the beginning, but slowly transitions out as the track continues. “All or Nothing” is a great track to open the album with as it is distinctly Pennywise, but as the album progresses you begin to hear Zoli’s influence on tracks like “Revolution” and you might begin to realize that this is not the same Pennywise. It is in fact crystal clear that the band is not trying to plug in someone to clone Jim Lindberg’s sound and move on as if nothing happened. This is a new and different Pennywise and you know what, I don’t hate it. It is going to take sometime to get used to,……….well maybe a really long time to get used to, but I actually really appreciate the fact that they didn’t just clone the sound and move on.
The fact of the matter is that, All or Nothing is a pretty good album. The question is, will it be too much of a shock for the life long fans? Check out their website, http://pennywisdom.com/ for some samples and then go buy the album you cheapskate.