Welcome to the Freakshow

Personnel: Hinder (hand claps); Mark King (vocals, guitar, piano); Marshal Dutton (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming, background vocals); Joe "Blower" Garvey (vocals, guitar); Mike Rodden (vocals, background vocals); Austin Winkler (vocals); Cody Hanson (drums, programming, background vocals).
Audio Mixer: James Michael.
Recording information: Barcode Studios, Oklahoma City, OK.
Photographer: Brantley Gutierrez.
According to Austin Winkler, Welcome to the Freakshow, the fourth studio album from Oklahoma-based post-grunge/sleaze rockers Hinder, was created in the throes of "a really, really dark drug binge" that resulted in a post-recording hospital stint for the notoriously rowdy frontman, suggesting that the band had finally reached the rehab portion in its extremely long reading of Mötley Crüe's The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band. While Freakshow may have been conjured in darkness, it's hardly a downer, offering up 11 tracks that run the gamut from crass, high-energy "underbite rock" anthems ("Save Me," "See You in Hell," "Wanna Be Rich") to lighter-melting power ballads ("Should Have Known Better," "Talk to Me," "Anyone But You"). ~ James Christopher Monger