Meat-and-potatoes hard rockers Fuel got an unexpected boost last year when American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry covered their 2000 hit “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)” on the show and sent downloads of the single soaring. Seizing the opportunity, the band offered Daughtry the chance to replace their recently departed lead singer Brett Scallions, but Daughtry declined, and is now a massive success with his own eponymous band.
So Fuel are left with generic new lead singer Toryn Green, recruited via an online open call (clearly the whole Idol thing really resonated with these guys). The effect on the band’s sound is negligible, though, since guitarist Carl Bell has always been the primary songwriter, and Scallions wasn’t a particularly distinctive vocal presence to begin with (neither is Daughtry, for that matter).
Like peers 3 Doors Down, Nickelback and Puddle of Mudd, Fuel play straightforward, unpretentious rock songs with little innovation and even less subtlety. Angels & Devils finds them continuing steadfastly on that path; there are some decent hooks and solid riffs, and an admirable if uninspiring workmanship to the tunes. Nothing here, however, suggests that a TV star at the height of his fame made a mistake by passing on a job as this band’s hired voice.
Fuel
Angels & Devils
** 1/2