Welcome To The Freak Show by Hinder
Welcome to the Freakshow is the fourth studio album by American rock band Hinder. Released on December 4, 2012 by Republic Records, it is the band's successor to All American Nightmare, released in 2010. On August 9, 2012, Hinder announced, via Facebook and Twitter, that their new album will be titled Welcome to the Freakshow. The album was released on December 4th, 2012. Hinder released the first single, "Save Me," on August 30th. According to Artistdirect, the group, in addition to typical rock music, incorporated elements of pop and country to the album's sound. In an interview with Billboard, frontman Austin Winkler said that Welcome to the Freakshow was recorded during a "a really, really dark drug binge" for him; immediately after the album was completed he entered a rehabilitation program. He also said that the band wrote about thirty potential songs for the album before selecting the eleven included in the final release. The album was produced by Hinder drummer Cody Hanson and Faktion's Marshall Dutton and mixed by James Michael of Sixx:A.M..
As legend has it, Hinder sifted through somewhere between 50 and 70 songs to pick the 11 tracks for its fourth studio album. Add to this the on-record reports that the band’s infamously indulgent frontman Austin Winkler checked into rehab immediately after recording <i>Welcome to the Freakshow</i>, and you have the kind of rock ‘n’ roll lore that makes for top-shelf hype. But from the volatile opener, “Save Me” (where Winkler screams “I’ve cut my demons loose!”), to the closing homage to megalomania, “Wanna Be Rich,” it’s more than possible that the hype's legit. With “See You in Hell,” Hinder has crafted a perfect hard-rocking, parent-hating anthem that sounds best when blasted immediately after slamming the bedroom door. Conversely, the sultry and seductive “Ladies Come First” oozes the kind of leathery sleaze normally reserved for Rob Zombie movies and pole-dancing accompaniment. Of course it wouldn’t be a proper Hinder album without such Zippo-hoisting power ballads as “Should Have Known Better,” “Talk to Me,” and “Anyone but You.”
