For a band that released its first album, Core, nearly 21 years ago to the day, it might otherwise be a tad optimistic for Stone Temple Pilots to close their new EP, High Rise, with a song titled "Tomorrow." Then again, this isn't the Stone Temple Pilots of your youth; it's a more youthful Stone Temple Pilots. In case there is someone who hasn't heard, Scott Weiland is out and Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) is in. This isn't the first time Bennington has contributed vocals to an STP track (he sang backup on a live version of "Wonderful," from the Family Values 2001 Tour companion album), but this is his first release of original material as the new lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots.
Like many of those who will purchase High Rise, Chester Bennington grew up a fan. Where his contributions, then, could have easily come off like a tribute to the band's legacy, this release (as an EP, it is only a taste of what is promised to come) is not only befitting of the band's legendary catalog, but the promise in the title of its closer will leave fans craving more.
The five tracks zip along--not one song rolls over to four minutes--and one can actually hear the progression as the songwriting becomes more cohesive by the end. "Out of Time," the first single, charms with repeated plays, but feels disjointed, as if the new incarnation of the band was trying to figure itself out. Instrumentally, it is vintage STP, so it’s jarring when Chester’s tenor blares out of the speakers, not Scott Weiland’s rich baritone. Whereas the rest of the album sounds like a band that has spent time collaborating, “Out of Time” comes across more like an existing piece of music that was handed to Bennington, who went right to his vocal comfort zone. Still, there are magical moments, such as the song’s pre-chorus, where Dean DeLeo’s descending guitar line is buoyed by his brother Robert’s freight train of a bass, which itself, as usual, is dragging drummer Eric Kretz along. Bennington’s vocals are melodic and understated in this fleeting moment--a hint of what is to come.
“Black Heart,” the EP’s second single, oozes the musical swagger that STP fans have become accustomed to. Kretz is the real star here, as his driving, pulsating thump takes this song from start to finish. The countrified riff recalls Columbia-era Aerosmith by way of The Knack, and Bennington’s vocal slithers around it in a way that will satisfy Scott Weiland fans, but still sounds new (despite a nod to The Beatles' "Get Back"). Where “Out of Time” is probably closer to what people might have expected with this collaboration, the band sounds as cohesive as ever here.
The standout track, though, is the album closer, “Tomorrow.” STP has always been a band greater than the sum of its parts, where each member’s talents fit beautifully together, like gears in a machine. The interplay between Dean’s guitar and Robert’s bass is what is on display here. Like much of classic STP, if the two instruments were heard independently, it would seem as if they were playing different tunes, almost fighting each other, as brothers do. But the two are intrinsically and inextricably linked--two parts of a whole that together form perhaps the most fierce guitar and bass partnership of the last 20 years. Bennington tells us that tomorrow “seems so far away,” but the same could be said for “Out of Time,” which seems childish—so long ago—in comparison.
When Bennington sings “Do you know the answers?/Tell me how to find my/Happy ending,” in “Same on the Inside,” he sounds like a surrogate for the original members of STP. After years of heartache and a dramatic decline in the capabilities of Scott Weiland (whose demons continue to torture him) STP might have just found its answer. Bennington sounds more at home with the DeLeo brothers than Richard Patrick did in Army of Anyone, and his sense of melody is beautifully interwoven over the course of most of the EP.
Will this be STP's happy ending? I suppose we'll find out...tomorrow.
