Review Summary: Aiden returns to their roots with Knives, the horror punk outing's fourth full-length album.
I've come to the conclusion that wiL Francis and the rest of
Aiden are geniuses. Their previous effort, entitled Conviction, was an album driven by lighter songs and an overwhelming sense of beauty. In other words, for a horror punk band, it was a terrible album. However, that album brought them to new levels of mainstream (even getting the track One Love (albeit a remix) onto the Resident Evil: Extinction soundtrack) and garnering an army of teenage girls who had become completely infatuated with frontman wil Francis.
Now, with an army of obsessed teenage fangirls at their side, they return to their clever mix of horror punk and post-hardcore to deliver their best and most unsettling album yet, introducing their new fanbase to a modern take on a legendary style of music popularized by The Misfits.
The album itself is pretty short. It's not as short as their Rain in Hell EP but without the Best Buy bonus tracks it clocks in at around 35 minutes long. When I saw that it only had ten tracks, at first I was a bit put off but after listening to the album I came to the conclusion that it needed to be shorter, because as the album continued to blare into my headphones, the songs started to blend into one another, showing an obvious lack of originality on the instrumental end. This is however, to be expected, seeing as how Aiden lost their rhythm guitarist not too long ago. Their guitarist tries to make up for it and overdubs a bit of rhythm here and there but there is an obvious lack of intricacy that previous albums had.
The drums and bass however are top notch, and very wonderfully bring the punk and post-hardcore elements together.
Here's what seems to most peoples issue with the album: wiL Francis.
While it's true to say that his singing style is not for everyone, I personally like it. However, I believe the true gripe lies within the lyrical content. wiL shouts obscenities left and right, insults God, and much, much more. Say what you want, but he's definitely writing from his heart. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. He's writing about his beliefs. He's not forcing them onto anyone, but rather he's using the music as a conduit to express himself. That is something that can't be said of many modern rock acts.
The album starts with the track Killing Machine. I can't imagine placing this song in any other spot on the album, because it feels more like an intro than an actual song. wiL chants about lighting the world on fire and carving things into flesh in candlelight, which surprisingly, are some of the less harsh lyrics on the album. It's a good start and a definite turnaround from their previous attempt.
Next we get Let the Right One In. This is the lightest track on the album and my least favorite. It shows somewhat of a reluctance in leaving the sound of Conviction and is the one song that really could've used their old guitarist.
Scavengers of the Damned is up next. This track is brilliant. It's a bit short (like most of the songs on Knives) but is a very catchy tune and after hearing it once you'll be singing it to yourself for weeks. wiL's vocal delivery is very reminiscent of songs like Die Romantic and The Last Sunrise but with an edgier sound to it. The guitar also sounds a bit technical while not being too flashy about it.
The next track is Elizabeth, a song about Countess Elizabeth Bathory. While the lyrics seem to explain who she is very well, they get lost a bit when wiL tries to write a story around her. I can't tell if it's a love story or if she's trying to kill him and bathe in his blood. He sings these hit or miss lyrics perfectly though. This song has some of the best vocals on the whole album. The guitar is very simple too and the drums capture a great punky sound.
Crusifiction has the most controversial lyrics on the album. As soon as the song starts up we're introduced to a soundclip from some movie I've never seen where a man insults god for about twenty seconds, then wiL's scratchy voice kicks in and the music gets a very odd upbeat quality to it. This track is great. From the guitar solo to the soundclips, this is one of my favorites from the album. It really does go to show that wiL doesn't give a ***. Period.
The Asylum starts off differently than the other tracks on the album, Aiden's attempt at variation. The lyrics on this track are my favorite on the entire album. They remind me of something right off of Knife Blood Nightmare or Our Gang's Dark Oath. The vocals are great too. The bass is the highlight of this track however. As soon as this song starts up it gets you pumping.
Portrait is an unneeded track with a girl talking about how she was raped. It's completely unnecessary, doesn't fit with the lyrics to any other song, and doesn't match the two tracks surrounding it in any way. This could have been another actual song. Instead, we only actually end up getting nine original songs. (Their is a cover song at the end of Black Market Hell if you listen past a while of silence)
Excommunicate sounds a lot like most of the other tracks on Knives but all jumbled together. It's got a great chorus but the rest of the track is lackluster.
King on Holiday is kind of the same thing as Excommunicate except it's instruments don't sound so much like the other tracks. The lyrics in this song are alright too, it's just nothing that stands out. If you listened to this song before any of the other songs on Knives you wouldn't really have much hope for the rest of the album.
Black Market Hell. This is THE best song on the entire album. wiL's vocals, the bridge, the lyrics, everything about it is just very good. If every song on the album was like this track I would've given it something higher. There's a cover of NOFX's Lori Myers at the end of this track as well if you're willing to sit through a few minutes of silence.
Overall, the album is Aiden's best and they're definitely improving as the go along. They learned from their mistakes with Conviction (if that album wasn't just a ploy to get teeny bopper girls to listen to horror punk) and they managed to produce an album with immense replay value. Sure, the band may dress like freaks, but if you're going to review music based on what the people that made it look like then you shouldn't be entitled to an opinion on sound.
I gave the album a 3.5 out of 5 and I can't wait to hear the next album from this halloweencore outing.
