Review Summary: A nostalgic twist on metalcore
Controversy has courted Blessed By a Broken Heart from their beginnings with a series of a well documented line up changes and bitter divides within the group. Following the catastrophically bad “All Is Fair in Love and War” there were a number of band changes, the old vocalist was replaced by the altogether more talented Tony Gambino and the band transformed into lycra wearing, mullet sporting, 80’s worshipping Christian metalcore outfit. The generic substandard downtuned drivel of their debut was replaced with syrupy keys and the undoubted talents of lead guitarist “Shred Sean” were made the forefront of the band. An altogether less serious persona was adopted and this is the message that is put across on the insanely fun “Pedal to the Metal”.
While essentially maintaining their metalcore roots a refreshing approach is sported by Blessed By a Broken Heart. Tony alternates between surprisingly good clean vocals and screamed vocals throughout. The flexibility exhibited from the sugary pop chorus’ of “Move Your Body” to the aggressive screamed verses of “Don’t Stop” could be described as nothing other than a positive. However the band’s main star is as already mentioned the lead guitarist who does more than live up to his self proclaimed name demonstrating a phenomenal array talent from picking the most outrageous licks and solos, hear “Ride Into the Night” which would not sound out of place on ZZ Top’s “Afterburner”.
The truth being said if it weren’t for Sean’s excellence and the light hearted nature of the band’s songs Blessed’ would most likely be another needle in the gimmick driven metalcore haystack. This being the case due to the presence of those infamous 80’s esque keyboards to give the music a fresh direction. Tyler Hoare’s bass work isn’t anything out of the ordinary, normally just following the lead of the rhythm adding some beef to the palm mutes being chugged by the rhythm guitarist. The drums are clinical if not a little predictable with the atypical metalcore esque crash cymbal and kick drum abuse being demonstrated throughout.
A particular strength of the album is the band’s ability to fuse metalcore with pop essentially, a great example in “She is Dangerous” where upon the beginning of the chorus backing harmonies are sung in between Tony’s lead vocals in an almost Alice Cooper – “Poison” manner. Breakdowns are used sparingly but to great effect, the band often opting to make more use of interesting guitar leads instead such as that in the second half of “Carry On”. This instead of mindlessly chugging out those same single note breakdowns we have all come to hate.
All in all, with the laughable, machismo fuelled lyrics put aside Blessed have offered a listen that if not taken too seriously some could find great enjoyment in.
Recommended songs:
Don’t Stop
Move Your Body
Ride Into the Night
