Review Summary: The Crimson Armada shatter all potential they possessed and all they respect they had gained with this painfully generic album.
Some changes are for the better, some changes are for the worse. But the change The Crimson Armada have presented in 'Conviction' is much worse then worse itself. 'Conviction' is an absolute disgrace to music itself, if this can even be called music.
The Crimson Armada debut album 'Guardian' in 2009 was nothing less then brutal. When I headbanged to tracks like 'The Serpent's Tongue' and 'The Architect', I wanted to rip the gizzards out of someone and just rip them to shreds. 'Guardians' made me want to mosh my brains out 24/7, it was very good Deathcore. 'Conviction' however, is a completely different story. While listening to this CD, I wanted to rip out my own gizzards, I wanted to die. It was painfully generic Metalcore that the heavy music industry has been plagued with the last few years. To narrow it down, 'Conviction' is horrible.
When The Crimson Armada first announced 'Conviction', they stated that in their previous album they were ripping off old Heavy Metal riffs and claiming them as their own and that on their new album they would be creating something totally unique. This statement blew my brain, I thought Conviction was going to be some highly technical Deathcore album that would destroy everything else, well I'm afraid I was wrong. Rather then creating their own riffs, The Crimson Armada have plagiarized the whole Metalcore scene, flooding their whole album with a plethora of breakdowns.
The whole album is pandemonium. The Crimson Armada build up excitement on every single track, giving you hope that they might launch into a bewildering Deathcore riff, but they shatter all hopes by lunging into another breakdown. The vocals of Saud Ahmed and Brandon Mcmaster certainly don't help either. Saud has thrown out his high pitched maniac screams and monster growls for medium pitched impersonations of a dying cat and Brandon Mcmaster's clean voclas sound like they've been ripped straight from a Miss May I song. It's a complete disaster.
The Crimson Armada have also ditched the eerie, lugubrious piano effects found on 'Guardians' for upbeat dance like keyboard effects. Therefore sounding like Attack Attack! clones, which is the recipe for one turd of an album.
Basically, stay clear of 'Conviction'. It's unbearable Metalcore that you've heard before. The Crimson Armada shatter the potential and talent they showed on 'Guaridans', 'Conviction' is disastrous
