Album Review: Sixx:AM – Heroin Diaries Soundtrack

Most fans probably remember Nikki Sixx from the days he spent with Motley Crue. The days he spent heavily abusing drugs and his strong addiction to heroin. Since then he has recovered from his addiction and now re-released himself back into the rock scene with an incredibly real and powerful album. Sixx has team up with DJ Ashba and James Michaels (The Exies, Saliva, Meatloaf, Sammy Hagar…) with his new band, Sixx: AM. Nikki Sixx recently recovered a diary that he kept during prime years when he was with Motley Crue, vividly detailing and documenting his life as a rockstar and his heroin addiction. The diaries, The Heroin Diaries, will be released this September. His new album, The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, is a strong, and powerful album that, brutally and emotionally, enters you into the world of a rockstar, drugs and all.

The album opens with a possible excerpt from his diaries, vividly putting you into a scene of drugs and the solitude it brings. A perfect precursor for what you’re about to hear. As the Christmas sounds drown the next track, Van Nuys, brings feet back to reality with a chorus, “Everybody gets high, everbody gets low…“, a chorus that you’ll surely be singing along too. The first single of album, Life Is Beautiful, is full of energy. James Michaels vocals are fulfilling, ranging from low to high notes. It amazes me to think that he hasn’t stepped up to the mic as a lead vocalist yet. Pray For Me, Tomorrow, and Accidents Can Happen are all solid songs which in turn is followed by an intermission, that made it hard for me not to think Trans Siberian Orchestra.

The second half of the album continues with Dead Man’s Ballet, which, begins with a narrated story of a near death experience, background choirs and changing tempos. The album mellows out and continues to share the honest stories of Sixx and his drug addictions. Girl With Golden Eyes, a track explicitly detailing what his body went through day by day as he gave up the drugs. “It’s like shock therapy to my guts”, Sixx remembers, but he keeps strong, continually repeating to himself “Everything will be ok, everything will be alright.” The album ends with monumental instrumentals and concluding narrations by Nikki Sixx, sharing his bitter realizations and his life after death.

The album is a solid release by Sixx:AM. I really felt like Sixx wrote his troubles and life changing moments with drugs through each song. This is everything a soundtrack would be, what you’d expect from a soundtrack, and it’s for a book. Sixx, DJ Ashba, and Michaels put together an album that is impactful, honest, explicit and just real. Not only do you feel the raw emotion in the lyrics, the music itself lives beyond it’s expectations. Make sure to pick up yourself a copy of Sixx:AM – Heroin Diaries, in stores every where August 28th. Or just click on this link to preorder it: Sixx:AM – The Heroin Diaries

{Review by: Anthony Montalbano}