Review Summary: Bullet hits the bottom.
The Welsh metal band Bullet for My Valentine became superstars after releasing their debut album,
The Poison, in 2005. After that they have been slowly declining on every album and
Temper Temper continues this trend, however in the worst possible way.
Temper Temper lacks all the aggression and energy that made
The Poison a fresh breeze in the mainstream metal scene. This was the case already in the three years ago released
Fever but the problem here is that while
Fever managed to be full of catchy tunes that could easily affect on their target audience, teenagers, basically none of the eleven tracks on
Temper Temper have any replay value. The album opener “Breaking Point” and the title track are the closest attempts on that but even they fall being generic and toothless songs that have really nothing memorable in them. To be honest most of the tracks seem to be just bad rip-offs of their own songs which is most notably seen on the follow-up to their hit song from
The Poison, “Tears Don’t Fall”.
However, while “Tears Don’t Fall, Pt. 2” pales in comparison to its predecessor, it is ironical that it is on the top of the tracklist in quality, with “Dead to the World” which has a relatively impressive guitar solo. Aside from the four songs mentioned the whole album doesn’t have a single even tolerable song and you know things aren’t going well when the most memorable moment of the album comes in a shape of being particularly laughable: “Riot” has frankly one of the worst choruses I’ve heard in my life. The guitars hit one note in the same tempo and the singer Matthew Tuck shouts awkwardly ‘Riot!’ which is followed by even more awkward ‘whooo-ooa’s. This is the point where there's no way to go any lower, as the whole song is one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever heard to be honest.
Actually, all the songs follow the same generic formula without simply any sign of experimentation. This album could really well be described as the
Nickelback of metal, as their only target seems to be hitting on the mainstream charts. Frankly, with a tracklist this bad even achieving that is a surprise. Tuck’s voice has never been anything special but on
Temper Temper it is mostly annoying and his shouts, which are pretty much the only edge on his vocals, are almost completely absent. Bullet for My Valentine has always been well-known for their immature and simple lyrics but on
Temper Temper they have gone even worse. The ultimate bottom is reached in “Riot” but none of the lyrics on the other songs have any creative lines either and are, as usually with Bullet for My Valentine, dealing with the immature teen angst. Especially “Dirty Little Secrets” has incredibly stupid lyrics that made me think how it is even possible that they are written by an over 30-year-old man.
Even though it was kind of predictable that
Temper Temper wouldn’t be anything good it is still a disappointment as being, kindly said, a total embarrassment. It can be seen that Bullet for My Valentine didn’t even try to reach their best when it comes to songwriting but this really is a touch at the bottom. It is a shame that while the band’s future looked bright after
The Poison, eight years later we can do nothing but laugh at their latest album. The band can’t really go any more downwards from this.
