Review Summary: Absolutely deserving of all the criticism bestowed upon it, yet also packed with enjoyable riffing and good lead guitar work. An enigma.
Certain bands have a bad reputation without actually earning it. This is just a sad fact of the music industry, and no band embodies this more than Black Veil Brides. They have all the elements to make for an enjoyable listen - fantastic leads, solid riffs, and not the worst lyrics of all time - but sadly they are also saddled with an uncharasmatic oaf of a frontman, and their image was widely considered atrocious. Their debut album, 'We Stitch These Wounds,' was a gateway into heavier music for many, and the lyrical content is frequently cited by emo teenagers as having "helped save me," or other phrases to that effect. It feels appropriate to revisit this album objectively, now that enough time has passed for that scene to die off and the band to sink into irrelevancy.
'We Stitch These Wounds' is a twelve song metalcore record, blending riffing reminiscent of Avenged Sevenfold with the lyrical content of My Chemical Romance. This is not an album that does anything unique whatsoever, yet there is enough enjoyable material here to make it worth a listen. Following a brief introductory track, the title track briefly excites with some good riffing that makes use of both higher- and lower-pitched notes to provide the illusion of complexity, despite being relatively simple. All is going well for the album, until the verse kicks in, and therein is found the often-cited worst aspect of the album. Andy Biersack (then going by the name Andy Sixx) is utterly talentless, with inhaled screams that sound too forced, and a monotonous clean style. His clean voice is not the worst ever to exist, but the lack of any variation whatsoever despite the variety of guitar work backing him is too much of a clash to ignore. The lyrical content is also rather mundane, although certainly had its place within the scene that they were attempting to find a niche within. Many of these songs contain positive messages towards emo teenagers encouraging them not to hurt themselves or sink into depression, and this is of course a good thing, but for anybody not connected with that scene it is undeniably painful listening. "Knives And Pens" is possibly the worst offender here, not only content with stealing a riff from Avenged Sevenfold's "Unholy Confessions." Lyrics such as "Alone at last we can sit and fight, and I've lost all faith in this blurring light," have rhymes that are a reach at best, and the vocals of Andy during the chorus are difficult to endure.
As the rating may already give away, however, this album is one that I personally consider to be enjoyable, and there are definitely positives to be taken away from the experience. "Perfect Weapon" opens with a prolonged scream that actually fits with the riffing, which is also thoroughly enjoyable. The solo is well placed and also well written, pleasing to the ear. "Sweet Blasphemy" used to be a fan favourite (and may well be, for all I know), and the melodic lead guitar work in the introduction gives a strong first impression. The verse riff is slower and more deliberate, and the pre-chorus is equal parts generic metalcore riffing and catchy metalcore nonsense. I believe those final three words encapsulate what can be found in this album. It isn't attempting to reinvent the wheel, at times even feeling very derivative of other bands in the industry at the time, but the songs are individually fun and serve their purpose just fine. "The Mortician's Daughter" breaks the album up with an acoustic ballad, and whilst Andy is once again average at best, the message of the song and the chord patterns are nice. Were I to divide the album into the good and the bad, the title track, "Perfect Weapon," "Mortician's Daughter," "Sweet Blasphemy," and "Beautiful Remains" would be my picks for the solid; therefore the others can be considered either uninteresting or outright bad. This is an album which is still very enjoyable, even in all of its middle-of-the-road mundanity, and one that will forever hold a special place in the hearts of those it touched.
So, where does that leave a final verdict for the review? Having acknowledged the negatives of the band that are so well documented by now, it surprised me how well this album still holds up, even so far separated from my own youthful adoration of the band. The leads backing the declaration of "you're not alone" in "Carolyn" remain seared into my mind, as does that opening to "Perfect Weapon," and that is enough for me to proclaim it a great album and a misunderstood one. Sure, there's nothing approaching perfection to be found here, but people wanting an example of how even the most generic metalcore can still retain the interest of its listener need look no further. Black Veil Brides would recognize that this sound was beating a dead horse and abandon it in favor of more radio-friendly hard rock music in the aftermath of its release, and this would be to their benefit, but in many ways their debut remains their strongest work.
