Review Summary: It is a better improvement over their last outing and CC is an amazing addition to the lineup. However, lack of proper balance and a chaotic track list make it a slightly failed experiment.
Produced by Josh Abraham and Lucien Walker,
Set the World on Fire becomes a record with surprising amount of consistency and heart, but doesn't manage to hold itself up to the height of improvement I was hoping BVB would give. I binge listened to all four Black Veil Brides albums after writing the review for
We Stitch These Wounds, and I must say, it put some things into perspective.
One of the biggest gains BVB got with this album was Christian "CC" Coma, whose drumming was much more in tune with the rest of the band themselves. Gone were the Metalcore influences from their first outing. Now they were intent on paying tribute to Glam Metal acts like Motley Crue. Featuring a mix-up of Glam Metal, regular Heavy Metal, and a pinch of Hard Rock;
Set the World on Fire actually improved quite a bit.
I'm going to just throw this out here,
Youth & Whiskey is my favorite track on the album. Most of the music had meshed in with Biersack's voice more, giving a much more listenable album. The problem definitely shows in 60% of the album, however. Biersack's vocals just don't match the intensity of the guitar in
Rebel Love Song and
The Legacy just frankly did not start off well, with CC taking speed to a whole new level without any support from the rest of the band.
New Religion and
Set the World on Fire's instrumentation is obnoxious to the point where I can only hear one muffled riff sound coupled with Biersack's vocals, they feel too chaotic.
I can't really tell the emotional intent from
Love Isn't Always Fair, and
Ritual's guitar doesn't start off well.
Die For You hearkens back to the instrumentation of their previous outing, which isn't a good thing, as Biersack's vocals dominate the song with the drumming taking a back seat. That is a poor decision.
Fallen Angels is an overall good track, but its introduction is poorly recorded and the chorus comes off muffled and confused.
God Bless You has the best introduction of all the songs on this album. The guitar and drums match perfectly with Andy's deep base voice, providing a gorgeous Hard Rock outing. Another well made song is
Saviour, which pays heavy tribute to Glam Metal without losing itself to parody (and keeps the very few good pieces of their first album). It might not be perfect, but there is a sense of determination in this record that I had never seen before in
We Stitch These Wounds. The biggest benefit this album has over the first record is CC. Christian's drumming is absolutely gorgeous and the drummer is an amazing talent.
It was obvious at the outset that BVB were looking to improve their sound, yet there were some songs that messed the whole plan up. Instead of utilizing CC's drumming with the rest of the band; the whole record was full of tracks either giving CC too much spotlight, or not enough. This album had foundation, but no balance. Once again it seems two producers just couldn't save this record from being it's own worst enemy.
