Oh my gosh, you guys are tough, they are a young band barely out of their teens and this is their major label debut and they write their own songs (which are generic, which AOR album from the last 10 years wasn't?) - I didn't say that they had recorded Led Zep IV or Axis Bold as Love, but they aren't The Archies either! Hook-ladden AOR is nothing new nor is it especially deep, but by your standards Mötley Crüe's debut wouldn't have passed the test either.
And yes, they have a good-looking chick singer, but nothing in their vid or in their live performance has her really overplay that card, she's not Lorraine Lewis from Femme Fatale!
And with all due respect to Rob's talent of analysis, the similarities to Stereo are fleeting and superficial. One swallow does not make or undo a hard rock band, Stereo is a pop band with rocking rhythm guitars in the currently popular Green Day vein while Halestorm put what approaches pop hooklines over riff oriented hard rock. There is a clear difference, the Halestorm singer's vocal lines have more Janis Joplin than Avril Lavigne in them.
