In a culture grappling with mental health and existential challenges, the rock band Shinedown seem to have risen to the top not by mere fortune but by necessity. For millions across America and abroad, they’ve become a bastion of resilience rooted in a sincere faith that life can turn in our favor. After years of contending with everything from depression to social issues in their previous two records, Shinedown triumphantly return to form on EI8HT, a sonic celebration of how far they’ve come and an expansion of their ever-promising future.
EI8HT marks a decisive shift in Shinedown‘s album approach following the concept records Attention Attention (2018) and Planet Zero (2022). The quartet have always had a knack for infusing emotionally forward anthems with storytelling, an inclination dating back to tracks like “Burning Bright” from their debut release, Leave a Whisper (2003), and the masterful seven-minute escapade, “Lady So Divine”. Attention Attention and Planet Zero consolidated Shinedown’s informed opinions on mental well-being (the former) and COVID-19 cultural fragmentation (the latter) into commentaries on their personal experiences and the zeitgeist at a particularly disturbing moment in time.
EI8HT tosses out all content restrictions, roaring back to full force Shinedown with delightful new twists and nods to the band’s post-grunge past. On a purely technical level, it’s a notable improvement over its three recent predecessors. Threat to Survival (2015) crystallized a tendency to over-polish the raw, powerhouse vocals of frontman Brent Smith, the percussion, and the snarls and squeals of electric guitar. In rock music, less is generally more when it comes to production.
Bassist/producer Eric Bass adopts this mentality, stripping back the sheen on one of the band’s most sublime instruments, Brent Smith, and letting vocals breathe and fill space as they deserve. Drums pack more of a punch, falling crisply on the ears where they may have blended more into the mix before. Bass also eases up on compression and seems to trust that “imperfections” can enhance rather than derail a track.
These choices don’t reflect on every piece—the radio-ready pop single “Three Six Five” and “Dance, Kid, Dance” still sport a heavy coat of gloss—but overall, Bass is learning to relax into rock music’s rough edges. He can let go even more in the future, too. Shinedown shine brightest when its four talents aren’t obscured beneath filters and effects.
During my recent interview with Brent Smith, the vocalist confirmed what I was hearing. “There are songs on EI8HT that aren’t even on a grid in Pro Tools. When [drummer] Barry [Kerch] would come in and do the drums, we allowed him to fluctuate. It’s why some songs sound like people playing in a room. This record is very human, and normally we’d be like, ‘Oh, we’ll fix that,’ or ‘We’ll move this around’ when it came to some of these imperfections, but those are sometimes what push the heartbeat in a song.”
EI8HT‘s heartbeat lends itself to something else that’s long been Shinedown’s signature: quietly lovely, occasionally chill-inducing emotional songwriting. “Machine Gun” is classic Shinedown balladry, woven with layered vocals and the innermost thoughts of a World War Two veteran as he pines for his beloved.
Inspired by stories from Smith and Bass’s grandfathers, the track champions love as a life-giving force on a planet rocked by violence and death. “Is this a holy war? / Is this an institution? / Is this the only thing we know?” questions the struggling protagonist. To his wife, he thinks, “I just need your calm, your soft, your confidence and grace / To get me through this darkness while the world is laid to waste.”
“Dizzy” is another romantically coded piece. Its exultant, slightly euphoric pace feels handcrafted for road trip reminiscence. “Good Lord, am I out of my mind? / I swear I didn’t smoke, and I’m off the wine,” Smith sings, “but every time you’re with me, I feel a little dizzy.” You might, too, if you allow yourself to get swept up into Smith’s electrifying performance.
“Wide Open” is a tender love letter not to a person but to life’s possibilities. “The sun goes down / In every hometown / You’ve got nothing left to lose / And no matter what you choose / It’s all in front of you,” Smith assures us. A sprawling pop melody unfolds, laced with guitars and synths. I’m reminded of the Inland Northwest’s vast, pine-studded landscape and mountains just out of reach. Others may recall their own places of origin while listening to this piece.
EI8HT‘s heartfelt crown jewel, however, has to be the stylistically experimental “So Glad That You Asked”. One of Shinedown’s best creative decisions has been to hand its bassist a microphone. Together, Brent Smith and Eric Bass transform an already affecting meditation on self-reflection into a taste of something divine.
Their vocal chemistry and shared emotional charge cradle the track like an exquisite, fragile artifact—precious and deserving gentleness, like the powerful feelings both men confess they’re “running from.” It’s unclear yet whether Bass will supply his rousing timbre to future Shinedown songs, but he should; the multi-instrumentalist is clearly also gifted with his inborn instrument.
Across EI8HT, Shinedown also come out swinging with attitude-filled numbers that remind us there’s a steel spine beneath the “feels”. “Safe and Sound” takes shots at adversaries and manipulators on a bed of bellicose guitars. Smith’s voice carries a hint of the edge that defined him during the band’s The Sound of Madness (2008) era, like he’s confronting a force with which he has not yet made peace.
“At the Bottom”, a brilliant showcase of Smith’s dynamic, explosive voice, and “Dance, Kid, Dance” prove Shinedown have plenty of liveliness and moxie to continue dominating the airwaves. What’s more, they seem to be acknowledging their growth as a band and as people.
EI8HT pays quite a bit of homage to Shinedown’s storied career despite obvious evolution. Longtime listeners will hear every era of the group across this record. Traces of Leave a Whisper and Us and Them (2005) ooze from the opening guitar chords in “Outlaw” like welcome specters from the past. The captivating “Searchlight” carries humble Southern wisdom that might recall The Sound of Madness; “Young Again” opens with the same electronic instrument recognizable from Attention Attention.
Meticulous craftsmanship marks each of EI8HT‘s 18 tracks. In one instant, the record evokes early-aughts or mid-2000s rock radio nostalgia. Next, it’s expanding Shinedown’s genre footprint and proving that 25-year-old bands can still pivot in exciting directions.
Shinedown serve multiple flavors here: pop, country, 1980s synthpop, post-grunge, and modern rock, to name a few. A lesser group might struggle to integrate so many textures, but Shinedown achieve it effortlessly. Give them a hook, and they’ll give you an anthem.
Where EI8HT falls short is in a handful of its lyrics. In “Bear With Me”, they miss a clear rhyming opportunity. “Where are all the titans who put lightning in a bottle? / They disappeared and left us here / And now we’re on our own.” Despite establishing a rhyme scheme in this track, Shinedown unexpectedly breaks it.
Another weakness appears in the synth number “Deep End”. “We might sink, we might swim” is a frequent refrain that makes no creative alterations to the idiom. From the band that wrote lines like “There’s a hard life for every silver spoon / There’s a touch of gray for every shade of blue” and “stain my mind with make believe”, such lyric choices feel underwhelming and misaligned.
With that said, it’s no easy feat to write an hour-plus-long collection spanning nearly 20 tracks (and 20-odd years of personal history)—even less so to make it enough of a joyride that some never pause to consider its length. Like most Shinedown projects, EI8HT is relentless fun—a rip-roaring good time for concert-goers, chronic commuters, and rock fans who treasure substance and hard-won wisdom in their head-bangers.
EI8HT also reads like the completion of an arc. While gazing affectionately backwards, Shinedown never grow wistful. While penning pieces about playing under the streetlights as children and chasing impossible-seeming dreams, they remain focused on the future. Shinedown will never be this young again, but they don’t need to be. Some renewals require grateful reflection on what has already been accomplished.