Rolling Stone review:
2 out of 5 stars
Beyond replacing Scott Weiland with a moonlighting Chester Bennington from Linkin Park, this EP - STP's skimpy return after three years - doesn't take chances. All five songs check in between 3:15 and 3:32, and they're all midtempo. "Black Heart" and "Cry Cry" at least manage a moderately garage-y, vaguely AC/DC-like boogie stomp, and Dean Deleo sneaks in passably rustic guitar fills here and there. But the bright power-glam bounce that the band often achieved behind Weiland is missing. And closing with a dreary number called "Tomorrow" was a lapse in judgement - in the realm of fake grunge, Silverchair own that title forever.
Ouch! Not that they were ever kind to STP, but damn.
Rolling Stone actually praised self-titled (which got good reviews in general), acknowledging STP's legacy a bit and that they were wrong in the past in a sense by doing that. This is a different band now though without Scott (despite keeping the name) so they won't receive any goodwill based on their legacy from publications like Rolling Stone. It's not the DeLeos/Kretz's fault, but with Scott gone they lose the respect that 'legacy' acts like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam get, and that STP themselves got in the first 2-3 years of their reunion.
I'm starting to think that they'll need a full album for this endeavor to work commercially, because without it they won't draw in enough new fans/Linkin Park fans. Because what interest would a modern radio rock fan have in seeing Chester sing a bunch of songs from 20 years ago that he didn't write and just a few new ones? They need to make a hit album, and perform several new songs like past supergroups (Velvet Revolver/Audioslave). The only way to make it viable is based on new material/almost being reborn as a new band. Being a nostalgia act doesn't work as well when you don't have all of the principle members. They need new fans to replace the long time STP fans that have been lost with the switch and from Scott's poor performances in 2011-2012. Otherwise the only fanbase you have is what's left of the STP fanbase and die hard Chester/Linkin Park fans who will follow any of his projects.