Scorpions - Unbreakable REVIEW

I remember there was a period in the early to mid-80s that this band could do no wrong by me -- yeah, that German band -- no, not ACCEPT

The Scorpions -- on a whim, I took a listen to their new album, Unbreakable, and here are my impressions

Scorpions - Unbreakable: C

I think the thing that sticks out about this album is that the Scorpions have never sounded HEAVIER -- I mean, this is totally crunchy from the school of Metallica Black Album kind of stuff

The only problem I have with that is that the Scorpions have always put together some of the most listenable hard rock/metal in the genre's history -- It's almost disappointing to hear them chop short riffs in a nu-met style -- an example of this is "New Generation" -- I think it would have been better in a "running wild" style than the chop stop riff style, because it is still kind of catchy despite the limitations of the style -- and imitations of styles of they can't really pull off that well

"Love em or Leave em" sounds the world like updated classic Scorpions, but with a fuzzier guitar sound -- this is the standout track of the album, I think I would have appreciated a whole series of songs like this one -- it reminds me of when the Scorpions could do no wrong -- "Blood too hot" is similarly an update of the Scorpions in a heavier, gallopy style

"Maybe I Maybe You" is another classic Scorps power ballad -- with minimal piano for most of the verses, nice and simple -- it gets heavy at the end, maybe a touch too heavy for the elegance of it, but a very good tune nonetheless

It's really funny me and my co-worker used to sing Scorpion hits like Klaus --- wow, he is truly the most unintelligible singer -- I mean, wow, what is he saying -- Amazingly, there is no such problem here, this is the clearest and most understandable Klaus vocals ever, even if his voice has lost that little bit of extra that made it so great in the past

At the end of the day, I think the Scorps try too hard to sound "relevant" -- and miss the point of what they do -- strong choruses, crunchy running rhythms, and Klaus laying down the classic vox with emotion -- there are points here that sound really great, and others that make you scratch your head bc they have elements of what has been the "formula" for other bands' successes in the past decade -- so I don't know what the Scorpions are trying to do, and in some ways I'm not sure they know either.