Based on the big rock sound of Zeppelin and Aerosmith, Sea of Cowards consistently eschews melody in the interest of riffs and impact. The heavily accented stop/starts of "Blue Blood"**** recalls the heaviness of "Black Dog" with some pretty funny lines like:
Check your lips at the door woman
Shake your hips like battleships
Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service
that blow away Plant's blues rehashes. The pulsing "Die By The Drop"**** is particularly edgy, and the most original. Some like "I Can't Hear You" and "No Horse" are standard jams, while keyboard-heavy "Gasoline" and "Looking At The Invisible Man" are more interesting, and "The Difference Between Us" manages to sound retro and futuristic simultaneously. But Mosshart's "Hussle & Cuss" and "I'm Mad" are particularly one-dimensional, consisting of one mediocre riff and one passably rock-sounding lyric over and over. The more repetitive tracks make the whole album sound more monotonous than some of the individual tracks actually are, as the overall songs have attitude and power to make up for what they lack in nuance and structure.
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