Review Summary: Not nearly as bad as people think, however, it is still a pretty generic album
I'm a die hard hardcore fan. I know a bad core band when I hear one. Bands like Black Veil Brides, Falling In Reverse, Escape The Fate, and Design The Skyline are terrible core bands. Confide is not one of them. Joey Sturgis is known for guiding bands in the wrong direction. Luckily, the members of Confide are talented enough to not completely fall under the influence of Sturgis.
The Vocals are terrific on the album. Ross Kenyon handles the screaming vocals for the band. He is a terrific screamer and uses them quite often. His lows are very powerful, while his middle range screams can get a little annoying after a while. You can tell that some of the screams are layered with each other which isn't a bad thing, it is just too obvious that they were tampered with in the studio. Drummer Joel Piper does all the clean vocals on the album and he has a very beautiful voice. He signs the chorus in every song and some parts of the verses in some. Songs like "The View From My Eyes", "Delete, Repeat", and "Tell Me I'm Not Alone" feature some very well sung choruses by Piper. Lead guitarist Joshua Paul handles the back up cleans for Piper and the two sound really good together. Allthough the clean vocals are good, they are used way to much and dont do much to move the album out of the generic category.
The music follows the same generic pattern of verse, breakdown, chorus, verse, breakdown, chorus, breakdown, chorus. The breakdowns on the album are not as boring as people think they are. The breakdowns at the end of "When Heaven Is Silent" and in the verse of "Now or Never" are very catching and are sure to have kids mshing at their live shows. As usual, the bass is inaudible. Of Mice & Men do a great job at making the bass audible and it adds a lot to their breakdowns, Confide should take notes. Paul and Jeffery Helburg are great guitarists. They have some great riffs here and there. Unfortunatly, they like to play breakdowns way too much. There isn't a bad breakdown on the album, there are just so many that it is hard to remember all of them. The drumming in the album is average which is understandalbe since Piper has to focus on singing as well.
Overall, Recover is a very generic album. However, it is better than average. If Confide would take away some of the breakdowns and clean vocals the album would sound a lot like Underoath and I think would be a much better album.
