Review Summary: A concept album that features a few good songs but unfortunately falls back to the bland original metalcore sounds that has been plaguing the genre for years and years.
Turn back a few years ago and you'll probably be wondering who the hell is 'Bring Me The Horizon'. A band that started out blasting deathcore music to the masses and attracting a large scene following was enough to propel them to fame. As I myself at the time was still in high school, I began checking these guys out around late 2006. To be quite frankly honest with you, I wasn't all that enthralled by 'Count Your Blessings'. Although some songs were great, it never had that real kick to it. But here we are in the year 2010 and in fact the band that you know now was not the band you knew 3-4 years ago. A real change in music style to a more common metalcore sound and a few line up changes and here we have the fully fledged out release of 'There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret'.
Oliver Sykes describes this as a 'concept album' and something that is fresh and new to the table. As I play the first song of the album, 'Crucify Me'. This definitely becomes apparent, the addition of choirs and a ground crashing guitar introduction leaves me surprised and actually quite pleased. The addition of 'Lights' vocals in this track is at times felt out of place and it sometimes feel tacked on the song. Regardless, listening to the first track and the way the band combines a mix of metalcore with a techno kind of sound and an acoustic finish paves way for me expecting a lot from this album.
This comes to a abrupt stop with the next song 'Anthem'. We then get back into the generic metalcore sound which often sounds bland and at times monotonic. The band once again falls back onto the roots of its previous album 'Suicide Season' with the chug chug riffs and vocals that sounds so repetitive and played out many times before. As 'It Never Ends' starts up, I began to think 'oh great another boring metalcore track' but by the end of the song I was pleasantly surprised. Again, the use of the choir is good but along with 'Crucify Me', it feels tacked on and probably not needed. But with two great tracks and one bland track so far, I moved onto the next track. '***' starts out a mess, there is just no melodic tune to this song and a constant repetitiveness of guitar and weak vocals calls me out to think this is just as bland as the track 'Anthem'. However, hope is not all lost as I listen to the track 'Don't Go' which is actually one of the better songs of the album. It's slow pace and melodic progression is what keeps me hooked and the use of Lights in this track is actually done really well.
Launching into 'Home Sweet Hole' and 'Alligator Blood'. I once again wonder why 'Bring Me The Horizon' fall back to their sophomore album roots and these tracks become two generic metalcore songs. The guitars sound like a broken record that feel played over and over and offer no real progression in the song but instead a constant repetitive chorus with a few breakdowns there and there. 'Visions' starts out much like the past two songs before it but this time incorporates the techno kinda of vibe felt in 'Crucify Me' and in fact, I actually had a great time listening to this song. The song 'Blacklist' is supposedly about their past member 'Curtis Ward' but again, this track is just a bland slow melodic song. It never really surprises me and feels like a song which struggles to really make me like it at all. 'Memorial' is just all instrumental and nicely flows into the next song 'Blessed With A Curse' which I think is the best song of the entire album. A nice slow vibe at the start, into the ground crunching guitars and surprisingly enough a pretty sweet solo at the end leaves me pleased. Then the song 'Fox And The Wolf' kicks in and I begin to wonder why this track was even needed, it is so short and begins to sound like another boring metalcore song and ultimately leaving a bad taste.
As I look back at the album, I held hope with a few great songs such as 'Crucify Me', 'It Never Ends' and 'Blessed With A Curse' and they really show the progression that this band has made but once 'Bring Me The Horizon' fall back to their original bland roots from 'Suicide Season'. While it isn't all that bad, someone like me who has been listening to the same old metalcore songs over and over begins to realise all the potential this band could have. 'There Is A Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret' shows a few good songs but a few average bland songs (not that their terrible, but just not innovative). Hopefully with their next album, the full change in sounds will become apparent.
Thanks for reading - Luminous.
