Review Summary: Asking Alexandria. Need I say anymore!?
A typical Hot topic 12 year old to Hot topic employee (who should know better) "What is Asking Alexandria?" The employee responds with a shocked look on his face, "One of the best metalcore bands of all time!" Excited and gullible, the 12 year old wanders over to the 'SH*T' section and purchases Stand Up & Scream. Once the 12 year old gets home, they import it into their iTunes and after one listen.... they determine without a second to spare, that this is the best band of all time. After weeks they spread the word to friends and even family, comparing it to Metallica's 'Ride The Lightning'. A few weeks later, that 12 year old goes missing while wearing an Asking Alexandria shirt...
The review I originally wrote was a joke, but I thought now I should be more honest, apologies for the lack of seriousness, but how could you take a band such as this seriously? Let me break it down for you, (awful pun intended). Asking Alexandria are a band that play your generic core music, with the screams, the singing that is only half bearable on a CD, let alone live and the typical uninspired regurgitated breakdowns. BUT WAIT! They have something so defining it separates them from the rest..they have SYNTHESIZERS. The synth's help break the monotony but do not solve the overall problem...the band is generally bad at being a 'metalcore' band on record and live.
Vocally, D. Worsnop is competent enough, his screams are pretty strong and he has a standard range, sounding better at the lower end. When he attempts to scream at a higher register it hurts your ears because it sounds like someone has just told him that it isn't cool to try and act 'Rock N' Roll'. Furthermore, his singing isn't that great, yeah he has a 'twang' to his voice but generally his voice is bland and has clearly been helped out with, wink wink. He lacks passion and finesse with his clean vocals.
Musically, Asking Alexandria are at the bottom of the barrel, their breakdowns on this album are god awful and well it's best if we just don't talk about them. Each song sounds the same except for a 'wah' here and there or some 'outlandish' guitar effect. The drumming is fairly standard, no golden drumstick awards here, sorry. As I previously mentioned, the synthesizers are good, offering some refreshing breaks to the otherwise bland material, one of the best tracks on this album is actually the interlude 'Hiatus' (which I wish AA take sometime soon..). Lyrically, this album is everything an angst-y scene kid loves, murder, love, sex, ROCK N' ROLL!!! It's just rubbish and over-fabricated to the point of being cheesy, it isn't cool and it really shouldn't be album worthy. I mean, what murderer says, "Oh the bullet's are gone, I'll take this spade, I slit your throat!!" Really? Did Ted Bundy or Richard Ramirez utter those words? I don't think so.
Overall, this album is a combination of 1) get famous fast 2) lack of inspiration 3) generic music. There really isn't anything great about this album and if there was I think most of us would be back-combing our hair right now or whatever kids do these days. Stand Up and Scream, makes you want to do just that, but with anger... OH! And that 12 year old was found alive....they just had some musical re-education. Life is one big fairytale.
