Review Summary: Amazing guitar, terrible lyrics. This album has both good and bad...and some very bad.
Bullet For My Valentine is yet another popular metalcore band that is forever condemned by critics. Personally, for a lot of bands I disagree, and in fact, I disagree for this band as well. While yes, some of the major criticism’s are rather true – for one, their lyrics are atrocious – many other are not. For one, I’ve heard it said that their guitars are no good. Rubbish. In fact, their guitars are the driving force behind the band (and the main thing that actually makes them metal) and the guitars are out in force on this album. From the soaring solo’s on
Hearts Burst Into Fire and
Say Goodbye to the flat out riffage of
End of Days and
Last to Know it’s the guitars that got 2 marks of my rating for this album.
Unfortunately, the album kicks off with the worst two songs available (complete with perhaps the worst lyrics in the whole of metal) –
Scream Aim Fire and
Eye of the Storm. The latter’s lyrics seem to convey the meaning “There’s a storm, lolz. I’m going to describe it in this song!!” while
Scream Aim Fire manages to be insensitive
as well as meaningless. These two songs are more than bad enough to scare off potential listeners, so it was foolish to put them where they are (on even on the album…let alone naming the album after one of them!)
Hearts Burst Into Fire is next and contains the best intro on the album. I finally felt the album might prove to be alright with this song. Admittedly the lyrics aren’t particularly up my alley, cliché to the point of never return, however, they are sung with enough sincerity and with emotional guitar work that the point is almost moot.
The next two songs are boring, meaningless and are simply not worth reviewing. So instead I’ll skip right onto
Deliver Us From Evil where the album finally starts looking up. Some people might find the length of the song too much, but I didn’t actually notice how long it was, it was enjoyable, and non-repetitive, enough not to be a major factor. It contains a decent verse and a catchy chorus, despite the bad lyrics.
However, the music
really starts looking better at this point with the following two songs the best on the album.
Take It Out On Me is my second favourite song on here, and contains the best lyrics (no doubt due to the guest writer) as well as great soloing and singing. Admittedly some parts remind me of
4 Words but this song manages everything that song didn’t. As for
Say Goodbye, it’s my favourite on the album and contains some extremely emotional guitar work. It also has some nice contrasts between power ballad and metalcore, however its not the abrupt changes found with some bands, rather a natural rise and fall of the music. Very nice.
What follows are two standard, but still interesting, metalcore songs with bad lyrics and good guitar. ‘Nuff said. However, there needs to be a word said about album finale
Forever and Always. Yes, the lyrics are as corny as you would think from the title. Yes, the song goes on for a minute or so too long. Yes, it is repetitive. No, it’s not a bad song. As paradoxical as it sounds, it’s actually a decent and enjoyable song. Strange, but true.
Pros:
- Brilliant and emotional guitar work from Paget
- Surprisingly good vocals from Tuck
Cons:
- Extremely bad lyrics
- Boring drumming
- Can’t hear the bass
- The first two songs
Recommend:
- Say Goodbye
- Take It Out On Me
- Last To Know
