Review Summary: Rehashed and offensively bad
People remember back to the 1980’s when the Hair Metal era took over and a more accessible style of metal was born. The pioneers of this era were arguably bands such as Def Leppard/Motley Crue/Whitesnake, these artists were integral to its rise in popularity particularly in the late 1980’s. Following the success of these bands a new generation of pretenders saw an opportunity to gain instant popularity by regurgitating the sound arguably introduced by their peers.
We are now experiencing the modern day equivalent of the hair metal era with the current state of metal, metalcore. Armed with their skin tight pants, Bring Me the Horizon-esque haircuts, Asking Alexandria sport their own brand of synth – laden metalcore. They of course are not the sole perpetrators of following the current trends but the extent to which they follow them is quite remarkable. Before producing their LP “Stand Up And Scream” it is quite possible their record label handed each member a criteria of what must be included in the record. Downtuned guitars, multiple open string breakdowns, sharp production thanks to one Joey Sturgis, sugary autotuned clean vocals, a scream vocalist capable of mimicking other successful vocalists in metalcore. It would at least seem this is the case as innovation is kept to a bare minimum, all aspects of the album are rehashed and watered down. All these genre defining traits are present and coupled with their poster boy image, they tick all the right boxes.
Highlights are difficult come by on this album, the band are obviously barely competent musicians besides the drummer who does his best to rescue what is really a catastrophic record. He uses some imagination with his drum fills and doesn’t just hammer his pedals. The album encases a one rhythm, one tone sound set by the guitarists who repetitively chug out palm mutes for pretty much the entire record. The vocals are generally spot on mainly down to the clean production, the bass is as ever completely inaudible and what comes across to the listener is the emptiness of the band’s sound without the electronics which honestly seem to have been added as an afterthought to try and mask the short comings of the guitarists and their inability to write interesting riffs. Breakdowns are in abundance and are another crutch for the band, everyone likes a good breakdown when used properly but Asking Alexandria uses the same breakdown again and again and whenever the band seems to get something right EG the synth drenched passage in “A Prophecy” they somehow contrive to ruin any positive moments by squeezing out the same bland breakdown they played 2 minutes before. The lyrical content is not even worth a sentence of my review, “I knew when I first saw you, You’d *** like a whore”. Need I say anymore?
Positives? I really struggle to find any whatsoever. Everything about this album seems previously explored, the clean vocals bring some much needed melody because the guitars contribute next to nothing.
You could list a huge number of bands trying to emulate Enter Shikari’s earlier material while trying to fuse this sound with a more contemporary metalcore sound. Asking Alexandria is not doing a good job so do yourself a favour and chance your arm listening to the next band.
Recommended Songs: (if you must)
A Prophecy
I Used To Have A Best Friend..
