Review Summary: Oli's on Molly.
In my experience, metalcore is a genre that takes some time to get into. I've never seen anyone who enjoys the maroon 5s of the world hear a song with screamed vocals and love it instantly. It's harsh, it's in your face, and it's not aesthetically appealing, at least at first. When someone tells me how much they hate "that screamo ***," i get it. It took me a long time and music with only a small amount of screaming before i was able to get into it.
Bring Me The Horizon, and this album specifically, was the first metalcore I ever forced myself to listen to. I had always liked metal, and I had discovered the joys of Slipknot not soon before. There had to be some reason why people liked this, and Bring Me The Horizon was the name I always heard thrown around. So I bought this album, popped it into my trucks CD player, and went for a drive. By the time I got home, I understood the appeal, and also realized one undesirable trait of this particular genre. There's a lot of it, and a lot of it is mediocre.
This is a transitional album, moving away from their deathcore roots to a somewhat more accessible sound. It works sometimes, but when it fails it's not pretty. There are some great songs here; "The Comedown" has some electronic elements and is a decent headbanger. "Chelsea Smile" Is a fan favorite, and for good reason. It has a sweet climax and some of the best lyrics on the album. The best song on the album by far is "The Sadness Will Never End," the only song to feature clean singing. It builds nicely, and gives you the impression that some thought was put into its creation.
That's more than can be said for much of the album though, "Football Season Is Over" and "No Need For Introductions" are under 3:00 minutes between them, and sound exactly the same. Indiscernible screaming over overtly heavy instrumentals that are just.. Well, boring. Which sums up "Suicide Season," as both a song, and an album pretty well. It's not terrible, it's just boring. While there are admittedly a few gems here, most of these Diamonds aren't forever, since they're still coal.
