It has been seven years since Smashing Pumpkins has made an album and while many original fans of S.P. were eager to hear their new album, myself included, came away disappointed.

Front man Billy Corgan attempts to create what he created from 1991-2000, loud-aggressive metal sound with part pop sound.

“Zeitgeist,” which means “spirit of time” in German, is S.P.’s hardest album to date with too much overdubbed guitars to it. It was as if Corgan went into the studio thinking this would be their best album yet.

Before, S.P. was a band that people used to vent their anger issues through. Songs like “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and “Zero,” off of “Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” were great rock songs that fused well with angry guitars because of the tranquil melodies.

The first song off of “Zeitgeist,” “Doomsday Clock,” starts right off with a hardcore guitar sound that almost made me think this was going to be a metal album.

Then the true S.P. comes out when Corgan starts singing. Unfortunately, there is not that catchy rift that many past S.P. songs had in the past.

The third song “Bleeding the Orchid” gives me a sense of nostalgia. This song kind of reminds me of songs off of “M.C.A.T.S.” with a few twists. Overdubbed guitars are very apparent and a much heavier sound to the overall makes the song different from those off of “M.C.A.T.S.”

Towards the end of the song it becomes very bland and no real direction to the song.

In junior high and high school people listened to S.P. for an escape. It gave young adults an out towards their life and a release towards how they felt at the time. “The world is a vampire, set to drain” are lyrics that teenagers could relate too.

No lyrics off of “Zeitgeist” stand out like that. Once, S.P. was looked to for a way out of a suburban teenagers life.

Now, those teenagers have grown up and they not looking for the same answers that they were looking for before.

The catchiest song off of “Zeitgeist” “Bring the Light” is one that would make someone move around a little bit. A catchy song with mediocre guitar rifts. The drums keep the song moving throughout like the S.P. that people remember. Unfortunately, lyrically speaking nothing stands out. Corgan decides to write a song with lyrics that rhyme the light.

By the end of the song I feel like I’m listening to Slash from Guns’n’Roses playing guitar.

Billy Corgan wanted to become that rockstar he once was when S.P. was a platinum selling band.

Zeitgeist will not get S.P. to that caliber.