Roswell-RCA

Seventeen years is a long time to suppress one’s feelings. But in the time that has passed between the suicide of Kurt Cobain and the release of the Foo Fighters’ latest album Wasting Light, frontman Dave Grohl never fully emoted his true feelings in song about the death of his friend and former bandmate, a sudden tragedy that shook an entire generation to its very core.

Yet with this blistering new collection of songs, recorded in analog inside the confines of Grohl’s converted garage studio, he finally comes to grips with his past on the best Foo Fighters LP since The Colour and the Shape. Wasting Light finds the drummer reuniting with several principals from the Nirvana days, including Nevermind producer Butch Vig in his most significant role behind the mixing board since Helmet’s Betty, Krist Novoselic, who plays bass on the telltale track “I Should Have Known” and legendary Germs guitarist Pat Smear, who was so crucial in Nirvana’s final year of performance and a key component to the sound of the Foos in their mid-90s evolution from one-man act to four-man supergroup alongside current bassist Nate Mendel and former drummer William Goldsmith (both of whom of Sunny Day Real Estate fame), now back as a full-fledged member of the group. If you are wondering why the guitars on this record sound a little more visceral than they have on the last three albums, Pat’s the guy to blame. There’s even a cameo from a key Nirvana influence, former Hüsker Dü/Sugar charge Bob Mould, who sings backup on the scorching key cut “Dear Rosemary.”

The combination of these prolific presences not only appears to have reinvigorated the streetwise nature of Grohl, but the current Foos lineup as well, rounded out by drummer Taylor Hawkins and guitarist Chris Shiflett. And together, the whole damn family sounds like they are having a hell of a time delivering on songs like “Rope,” “Back & Forth” and “Walk” with the kind of brute force that will make you forget all about the last ten years of commercialized schmaltz the band has been dishing out to the lowest common denominator of their fanbase.

For those who had been waiting nearly a decade-and-a-half for the Foos to get beyond their mainstream radio wanderlust and revisit the brutality of their legacy, Wasting Light is a triumphant return to form that fully showcases the healing power of music therapy on both a creative and demonstrative level.