Halestorm

It’s always impressive when a band’s debut full-length album lands in the Top 40 of the Billboard 200. That happened to the Pennsylvania band Halestorm, fronted by Lzzy Hale.

But before the album dropped, Halestorm logged a lot of road time. There was the ’06 Winterfresh Sno-Core Tour with Seether, Shinedown and Flyleaf. That was followed by the Equinox Tour headlined by Shinedown (again) and Trapt.

The work paid off. Featuring the lead single, “I Get Off,” Halestorm’s self-titled debut arrived in ’09 and out of the box took possession of the #40 slot of the album chart.

A concert recorded (on 04/30/10) and released as “Live In Philly 2010.”That was followed by the “ReAniMate:The CoVeRs” EP. The genre bending collection featured covers of “Out Ta Get Me” (Guns N’ Roses) “Bad Romance” (Lady Gaga) and “Slave To The Grind” (Skid Row).

I Get Off

Freak Like Me

The ’12 EP “Hello, It’s Mz. Hyde,” was a four-song preview of the group’s full-length effort, “The Strange Case Of…” which dropped later in the year.

The album yielded the single “Freak Like Me,” Halestorm’s first song to reach the top of the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

“ReAniMate 2.0,” with covers of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and Stevie Nicks’ “Gold Dust Woman,” came a year later.

After also covering the Dio song “Straight Through The Heart” for the “Ronnie James Dio – This Is Your Life” tribute album, Halestorm rolled out “Into The Wild Life.” “This album is not a departure, it is an invitation to all things Halestorm,” stated Hale. The set peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 and topped the Rock Albums, Alternative Albums and Hard Rock Albums charts. The ’15 LP’s lead single was “Apocalyptic.”

Apocalyptic

Another EP arrived in ’17. “ReAniMate 3.0” included a cover of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ “I Hate Myself For Loving You,” Whitesnake’s “Still Of The Night,” Soundgarden’s “Fell On Black Days” and Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning.”

The group’s next full-length effort, “Vicious,” containing the singles “Uncomfortable,” “Black Vultures” and “Do Not Disturb,” dropped in ’18. “Every record, we try to kind of get it closer and closer to what people see every day live,” Hale explained.

The album peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200 and went to #1 on the Rock Albums chart.

Uncomfortable

Do Not Disturb

In recognition of Hale’s continued success as a frontwoman she was honored at the eighth annual (2020) She Rocks Awards at the House of Blues in Anaheim. The event was under the auspices of the Women’s International Music Network (the WiMN).

Two years later, “Back From The Dead” dropped. Written during the COVID-19 lockdown, it reflected a time when the band could neither tour nor record. “I fell into a dark place and something of an identity crisis,” Hale explained. “This album is the story of me carving myself out of that abyss.

The Steeple

A featured track was “The Steeple,” a song “about how we use the music, the arts or whatever it is you’ve got to do to get back to that place, that happy place,” Hale noted.

Hale spent a part May, ’24 fronting Skid Row on a brief tour after the band’s singer Erik Grönwall quit to focus on his health.

A few months later, the Halestorm/I Prevail collaboration “Can U See Me In The Dark?” dropped as a stand-alone single in advance of the two band’s joint tour.

It went to #1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart,