Review Summary: Despite some small shortcomings, Wretched and Divine is an enormous improvement to Black Veil Brides' overall sound. It seems that John Feldman was exactly what this band needed to prove their worth.
Holy guacamole! This was actually good. Really good, in fact.
What an improvement! Produced by John Feldman,
Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones is a Rock Opera with some excellent production and heart. Feldman, who is known for his "orchestrative" approach to music, applies a cinematic feeling to Black Veil Brides's third album. The result is a bombastic record filled with energy, consistency, and dark beauty.
It isn't perfect, however. For a start
The F.E.A.R. Transmissions have absolutely zero context to them. They remain cryptic pieces of wasted seconds I could be spending listening to music instead. Most of the narration is interesting, but utterly full of itself with its pseudo-intellectual vocabulary ripped off the latest edition of Webster's dictionary.
Exordium is just as guilty, and
I Am Bulletproof is disastrous as an album opener. The entire song comes off sterile, with the guitar reaching a monotonous drone near the end leaving me quite disappointed.
Resurrect the Sun was interesting as well, but was too slow and bereft of any emotion. The song jumped between tempos with no real consistency.
Shadows Die is some of the best Hard Rock BVB has made. Excellent synchronicity between the drums and guitar. It seems in this record that Christian Coma got a bit more comfortable in his position within the group, his drumming has a more assured feeling to them, not as forced.
Overture was probably the biggest showcase of Jinxx's talents, beautiful but not "wishy washy", retaining the dark mysterium that make up Black Veil Brides themselves.
Devil's Choir is one of the finest examples of how Andy's voice should be handled. Full disclosure: I don't actually believe in "bad vocals", I simply see vocals not matching instrumentation. Andy's vocals were never really suited for Metalcore, but Hard Rock is a much better fit for him. His deep baritone is better suited for the rough, less technical genre of Hard Rock. The same can be said for
New Years Day, one of my favorite tracks on the record.
New Years Day features some of CC's best drumming on
Wretched and Divine.
In The End is a more mainstream song; not surprising considering this is a single. Despite this,
In The End remains a satisfying tune, with the choruses utilized best here compared to everywhere else on the record.
We Don't Belong is an oddly produced track, with some weird sound effects and some poorly recorded vocals.
Done For You and
Lost It All have abysmal quality, and I am not sure why. I can assume they were purposefully recorded this way, but the quality of the sound in general is just horrendous. Yet
Days Are Numbered keeps me heavily entertained. A five minute epic with layered guitars, bursting drums, and some of Andy's most powerful lyrics.
Nobody's Hero is a good song, but it could be slightly improved, as its drumming feels completely lax when compared to the other contributions to the overall song. Despite this, the entire record is something that astounds me, and is certainly something I didn't expect from Black Veil Brides of all bands.
