Paul Lidel's Scream Therapy Are You Ready Review
Paul Lidel’s Scream Therapy
Are You Ready
Perris Records
2025
“Are You Ready” kicks open the damn door, walks in and puts its feet on your coffee table and dares you to do something about it. Paul Lidel has always had that swaggering, no-nonsense guitar personality, but Scream Therapy feels like he finally stopped pretending that he’s got something left to prove. The record hits like a band that’s lived through the dive bars, the late-night loadouts, the lineup changes, the burnout, and came out the other side with their teeth still sharp.
This album is built on movement, not the polished “radio rock” kind, but the kind where you can practically smell the gear cases and spilled beer. The guitars have this greasy, late-night shine to them, ripping and sliding without trying to reinvent the wheel. They don’t need to. Lidel plays like a guy who reinvented the wheel twenty years ago and he doesn’t feel obligated to tell you about it.
Vocally, the record leans into attitude rather than theatrics. There’s grit, bite, and a sense that every line is delivered with a smirk that says, “You’re damn right I mean it.” The rhythm section keeps everything glued down with a stomp-and-strut backbone - punchy, muscular, but leaving enough breathing room for the riffs to actually feel dangerous instead of compressed to death.
The standout quality here is energy. Not youthful energy, hungry energy. The kind you get from musicians who still love making noise loud enough to shake the rafters. The guys who’ve been to the top of the mountain then looked down. There’s no filler, no pretension, no half-hearted “we’re still relevant” gestures. Just songs that live and die by the riffs, the hooks, and the sweat. This is the kind of record that does an old Metalhead’s heart good to hear and feel.
“Are You Ready” isn’t trying to be a modern classic. It’s a straight-up Smashmouth Rock ’N’ Roll record made by lifers, and it sounds like it. If you miss that feeling of an album punching you in the gut and daring you to do something about it, then yeah… You’re Ready.
Standout Tracks – “Never Satisfied”, “Stop At Nothing”, “Are You Ready” and “We Got Rock N’ Roll”.