Monsters, Second Chance & How Did You Live (Shinedown for TTT)

It was nice to spend time at home and let the souls recuperate from all the nuisances of life in the previous days. The husband on the other hand gave in and went to the neighbor's party. I was just yearning for some peace so I opted out of it and took it as my "me" time. I'm glad that my Anyongi seems to have wanted the same thing and had just been snoozing under my chair most of the day. It was evident that he was exhausted too during our day outs.

Sometime in the afternoon, I got the mood to check out new musicians for a change and Shinedown crossed my radar. I'm not really into the rock genre but I do enjoy some, especially when the song lyrics strike some chord in me. The band is quite cool and I could listen to them.

Here are some facts about the band per Wiki:

Shinedown has the most number 1 singles on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts with 19, and all of their released singles have reached the top 5 on the chart. Additionally, on June 3, 2021, The band was ranked #1 by Billboard on the Greatest of All Time Mainstreams Rock Artists chart released to celebrate the Mainstream Rock Chart's 40th Anniversary. To date, the band has sold more than 10 million records worldwide.¹

In addition, the band is one of the most listened-to rock bands on Spotify with over 600 million streams which contribute to their more than 1 billion total overall streams to date.²

That's quite a record, yeah? Anyhow, allow me to share 3 of their songs that caught my heart today:

Shinedown - Monsters

This is the 3rd single from their album Attention Attention which was released in 2019. Accordingly, this song was influenced by Smith's real-life struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse in the past.

The dynamic in the song is not just about substance abuse. It's about a lot of different situations that people get put in because they have things in their mind that – for whatever reason – they used to sabotage themselves. (Smith)

Shinedown - Second Chance

This is from their album Sound of Madness. Per Smith, was about his parents and the day he bid goodbye to them "because he had to try, had to go try, and I'm still trying, every day, to become a man."³

Some facts about the single:

• The song was used in promotion for the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the 2008 WWE Tribute to the Troops show.

• This is, "by far, Shinedown's biggest hit to date. It reached the top spot on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks on December 27, 2008, then hit number one on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks on 14th February 2009, and marked the first time the band had topped multiple charts."⁴

Shinedown - How Did You Love