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Personnel: Ian D'Sa (vocals, guitar); Ben Kowalewicz, Jon Gallant (vocals); Aaron Solowoniuk (drums).
Adding swampy blues-rock and down-home muscle riffs to their punk-pop template, Billy Talent's third album, aptly titled BILLY TALENT III, owes as much to Zeppelin rock stomps as it does to latter-day Green Day. In the start of "Rusted from the Rain," vocalist Ben Kowalewicz sounds like a dead ringer for Billie Joe Armstrong in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," but by the grungy, drop-D chorus of "Crush me like a flower, rusted in the rain/Strip me of my power, beat me with a chain," the inevitable bombast kicks in and it's more like Jeff Buckley fronting Soundgarden. If it sounds like the Ontario quartet has replaced their Buzzcocks-influenced art-punk roots, it's because they have. And songs like "Tears Into Wine" demonstrate that the band's venture into biting arena rock has definite promise. While these songs are slicker and less snide, they're surely not obvious or easily calculated. And the group is still too beefy and weird to fit any emo-pop label. It's common for punk groups to turn face and go this softer route, and while Billy Talent might be on this path, especially with Warped Tour gigs, for now it seems like they're intent on carving their own niche.
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