Review Summary: Chuggy and generic, but melodic and passionate. They mean well.
Admission: metalcore isn’t exactly the most creatively brimming of genres. However, for fans, there is a certain consolation in the combination of melodic and heavy that it offers. With the clear if overly simple purpose of “Sending You Strength,” Means sings, screams, and plays their respective hearts out. Okay, so passion isn’t the most tangible element of music to measure, but these guys have got it. Maybe it’s just the vocal production, but there is a desperation captured in the continued transitioning from singing to shouting to screaming that stirs something in the hearts of fans. And while it’s not quite enough to warrant this album being exceptional, it is by no means a poor effort.
Although not the greatest consolation, Means is heavily influenced, but not a carbon-copy. There’s no doubt that the variation song-to-song is limited at best, but they are earnest throughout. Through all the chugging, breakdowns, and even occasional spoken intro bordering on pretentiousness, the melodies remain honest, and the screams still wrest considerable profundity. Epitomizing all that metalcore has to offer, Means gives an earnest attempt, but falls just short of greatness, though certainly not for lack of effort. You’ll find no uninspired filler within these 12 songs. An almost astonishing tirelessness carries through the entire album, and while the listener may grow weary of the continued shifts from melody to chug to shout to scream to sing to breakdown ad nauseam, Means surely does not.
In attempting so honestly to ‘send strength,’ Means meets their greatest downfall: the inevitable “what now?” that arises at each pause between songs. To put it simply, there is nothing else. Means simply made a record by putting their hearts into a formula. However, it is precisely this simple earnesty that gives the album its appeal.
