Review Summary: [i]Suicide Season[/i] is better than their previous work, but that isn't saying much.
If you're into deathcore, you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't know who Bring Me The Horizon is. Often labeled the most overrated deathcore band out there. Quite frankly, I have to agree. I've tried several times to get "into" BMTH. I consider myself to have a very open mind when it comes to music. Therefore the emo/scene lyrical content doesn't bother me. I've listened to "This is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For" and "Count Your Blessings" extensively, and I still have a hard time trying to point out an individual song. There just so alike. I've taken the bad recording quality into account, however literally everything was terrible. The riffs, the 1 chord, amazingly simple (and overused) breakdowns, and even the god awful vocals (probably the worst out of the bunch). So I read one day that BMTH has decided to move away from deathcore for their upcoming album.
At first, I was assuming that the band would get softer, or just become full on screamo. This, surprisingly enough, is not the case. With "Suicide Season" it appears they abandoned most elements of death metal they previously had (it makes me cringe typing that), however the hardcore elements remain.
What is left, is a mediocre hardcore album (keep in mind their previous album was pure garbage, so that is a complement). This album just screams mediocre; everything about it is done half assed. Out of the 10 songs, only 2 or 3 (at most) stand out amongst the crowd.
The lyrical content remains the same, singing about scene/emo stuff. However, it appears they actually took a step BACK in this category (not sure how that's even possible). Adding random words that don't even pertain to the rest of the lryics in the song. For instance in the song "Chelsea Smile" (which sounds amazingly similar to "The Comedown") the vocalist in the middle of the song starts shouting "Repent! Repent!". Another song that falls victim to this poor song writing is "Football Season Is Over". Which at the end of the song shouts "Party til you pass out, drink til' you're dead". I never thought I would find a band that was worse than Emmure (in terms of lyrical content), but BMTH proved me wrong.
It's obvious to see this was an experimental album. Aside from changing up their sound a bit, BMTH also adds random electronic elements. As in "Chelsea Smile" the song completely stops at around 3:15 and for over a minute a boring electronic beat (which doesn't even fit with the song, mind you) starts in. By the time it ends, you're already bored, but that's not even the worst part; the song isn't actually over. That's right, even after this simplistic techno beat ends, the song trys to pick back up. Nothing new is added, it's basically just the chorus starting over again. Another song, "The Comedown" is evidence of these electronic samples. At the very beginning of the song, it starts off with a distorted (almost Drum and Bass) beat and fades into the song. This somewhat works, probably because it's at the beginning of the song, and it only lasts a few seconds.
Another thing I dislike about this album, is it almost stops itself just as it gets going. As I previously mentioned, in the song "Chelsea Smile" the song completely stops, and fades into a boring techno beat. However, in general the whole album is like this. It seems that many of the songs either start off, or end slow. With the song "Suicide Season" (which coincidentally is the longest song on the album, clocking in at 8 minutes), the entire song is a more slower song. Just as you start getting into this album, it hits a brick wall, and then you start all over again.
Suicide Season is an interesting attempt to break away from their previous sound (which they succeeded at somewhat), but still suffers from many of their previous mistakes. This is one of those albums where only die hard BMTH fans are going to enjoy. For the rest of us, it's probably a good idea to skip this album.
On a final note, here are the songs I recommend:
"The Comedown"
"Dragon Breath"
