Review Summary: In Conclusion, if you like music that speaks about 'saving' you, and softcore metal, listen to this. Otherwise, I'd strongly advuse against it.
During their meteoric rise to fame, I followed Black Veil Brides, and yes, I was once a fan. I still have this album, and until around six months ago I would still occasionally listen to it. But as I listened to it again and again, I realised just how terrible it was. I'm baffled at how anybody could like them.
So, since there are many negatives, I'll tell you the one or two positve areas of this album.
The guitarist, Jake Pitts, is a good guitarist. Hell, I'd go as far to say that he's one of the more decent lead guitarists in rock today. Notice I said rock, not metal. Their songs, while whiney and incredibly cliché are still decently written. And they obviously know what sells to young teenagers.
Here's the bad.
Black Veil Brides are little more than glam metal. Now, I'm not a fan of this kind of music, usually. I hate the music of Bon Jovi, and Sebastian Bach, and even the 'legendary' Axl Rose. But the difference between them and Andy Sixx is that they could actually sing decently. They could reach a lot of places with their music. Sixx can't. He sounds nasally. And his screams are a complete joke. There is little more to day about him, to be honest. Good examples of his diva sounding "I know I can sing, I'm better than you!" Are the songs "Fallen Angels" and "Love isn't Always Fair", where he seriously fails at trying to prove himself as a serious competitor for Best Vocalist. The songs individually are so incredibly scene I'm surprised they aren't dyeing their hair rainbow colours and making cat noises. "Ritual', "Saviour", and "God Bless You" are the biggest examples of pathetic whiney bull that I've ever heard, and I wasn't a fan of then even when I liked the band. Also, if you look at the lyrics, there are at least twenty different occurrences of the phrases "Hey" and "Woah oh" spread throughout the album. In one song, yeah, I can take it. In seven or eight? The songwriter clearly has to be bad at his job.
It's also fairly apparent that they've cleaned up his vocals and altered his vocal range with the good ol' autotune. If you've ever seen them live - which I, I regretfully admit, have - then you'll probably have noticed that the songs sound so different on stage. Unless you're a big fan. Then you're too busy screaming and orgasming over the band to notice. You'll also be deafened by hormonal scene kids singing badly along to their songs, which have so much "soul".
The band really relies on appearance to 'express themselves' in a unique way. Yeah, because there isn't a huge glam rock band who wear black face paint already *cough cough Kiss cough cough*
So, all in all, if you're new to metal, don't pick this up. Because it will poison you to the view of metal itself, and you'll mend up transitioning to horrible scene bands, like *shudder* brokeNCYDE or Blood on The Dancefloor.
It's my first review, so I'd appreciate critisism, constructive or not. It's not the best work, but I really can't say much else.
