Review Summary: A couple tracks are sort of good. This, however, can't save an abysmal attempt at Metalcore and Heavy Metal in general. Three producers or not.
Oh boy, here we go. My first review on here and it just so happens to be on a Black Veil Brides album.
A little backstory.
I was in a really good Metalcore mood after binge listening We Came As Romans all day, when I decided to look at some other Metalcore acts. It came as a surprise to me that BVB came up in search results. I didn't even know they did Metalcore, but they did.
And, oh boy, was it horrendous.
We Stitch These Wounds is predominantly a Metalcore record with hints of generic Heavy metal to spice things up. A little too spicy, as I end up crying for water halfway through the whole thing. It set a nice tone in
The Outcast's (Call to Arms), with Andy Biersack's grandfather providing a little creepy narration through an audio filtered recording. Yet it could not even remotely prepare me for what was to come. Heck, where do I start" The damn record was Produced by THREE PEOPLE. Blasko, a former bassist for Rob Zombie and current bassist for Ozzy Osbourne, along with G. Preston Boebel and Josh Newell. Yet none of these producers could help this record.
We Stitch These Wounds was some horrendous Metalcore, Andy's vocal were completely off key with the rest of the song. Like really off key. The biggest draw of Metalcore is the marriage between screaming and powerful vocals. The screaming they got, but Andy's vocals cannot match the powerful pitches required for a proper Metalcore outing. Most of the instrumentation was good but was off putted by Andy's vocals.
Beautiful Remains and
Children Surrender were both pretty bad songs with no good lyrics and some utterly ear pounding vocals. The instrumentation on
Perfect Weapon was actually pretty good compared to many other tracks present. Guitars were rampant in speed and the drumming by Sandra Alvarenga was top notch. Andy's vocals weren't as prevalent as the screaming, which helped it out a bit.
Knives and Pens was pretty poor, very bad synchronicity between Andy's vocals and the overall instrumentation. Not just that, the instrumentation is obnoxious to the point where I can barely here anything but one general sound. Not to mention the lyrics were about as diverse as Brittany Spears'
Womanizer.
The Mortician's Daughter came as a big surprise to me. It is almost unrelated to the rest of the album, but does come off very nicely. Excellently simple "geetar" solo with some soft vocal delivery by Mr. Biersack. The whole track was great actually. Except my moment of peace was disrupted by
All Your Hate, which once again barraged me with some terrible drumming. The drumming is probably the worst on this track, being completely off track with the rest of the song's tone.
And even when the instrumentation is top tier, like in
Heaven's Calling, the vocals go way off track with the rest. Andy cannot get the pitch needed to bring out the "Metalcore" in this record. Honestly this record would have just been better as a Death Metal record, it wouldn't have saved the whole album, but it would have improved the overall quality. I won't lie though, I love
Never Give In. The guitar in this song absolutely nails the raw intensity of the lyrics, and surprisingly matches Andy's vocals for once. It retains a creepy atmosphere over the whole 3 minutes and 9 seconds.
Sweet Remedy and
Carolyn are both meh. Neither are so terrible I hate them, but they aren't good enough for me to praise either.
