Review Summary: Are Bullet For My Valentine growing up? Or are they trying for a new direction?
Bullet For My Valentine's second effortis something different showing a different side to themselves and thier fans. Bullet For My Valentine show their stronger influences, often tagged as the 'next Metallica' by others Bullet For My Valentine have moved to a faster, thrashier recording and whether the new Metallica status is correct or not, their overall musical style has matured.
One of the first things listeners will notice is that while its Bullet For My Valentine, its faster and has a better balance of screamed and clean vocals whilst remaining catchy. This album still features 'chugged' guitar riffs and technical guitar solos. Also featuring in Scream Aim Fire is the added melody lines (more than that of 'The Poison') showing off a better sense of songwriting skill and judgement of where the melody lines work in songs. Bullet For My Valentine shows a better sense of talent through their instruments.
A weak point of the album includes the transition between songs, more often than not listerners will find tracks blending together, especially during the faster, thrashier songs for example from 'Hearts Burst Into Fire' to 'Waking The Demon' to 'Dissapear' listeners will find this especially blending together, with no break from the fast-paced chugging. However this effect is lost when the album moves to the softer more melodic tracks such as 'Say Goodnight' and 'Forever And Always'. These tracks also show the added level of maturity shown by the band both in song writing ability and overall context as these songs, plus others tackle issues such as depression, death, war and politics as well as the ever present topic of heartache.
Bullet For My Valentine show great enthusiasm in Scream Aim Fire however tracks do tend to blend together, while others feel like fillers or extensions of other song ideas. The vocals on Scream Aim Fire have also had a noticeable change, especially the lack of screamed vocals, that is to say that their there, just with a better balance and better taste. The non-screamed vocal lines however have become harsher, rushed and less melodically sung, an example of this would be the opening title track 'Scream Aim Fire' where certain parts of the song are actually screamed including the hook-line, screams during the break-down and 'charge' over the top of a pick scratch. This shows a more mature style of song-writing.
Overall Scream Aim Fire is an enjoyable listen, as long as the tracks don't start to blend together, a plus of the album is the developed song-writing and contextual maturity displayed on this album and while this album is consistantly good it is not as yet of a high quality which is expected from the band and it remains a great progression from 'The Poison'.
Highlights Include:
Scream Aim Fire
Last To Know
Forever And Always
