Review Summary: This Means War, on trying to sound better
Attack Attack!, a band famous for Crabcore found in their Stick Stickly music video, notorious for over layering auto-tune and being an overly generic band with nothing to keep them afloat. With the departure of both Johnny Franck and Austin Carlile, the 3rd and final studio album of Attack Attack! has shown what potential the band could have had, if they went for keeping a steady line up.
The album opens up with The Revolution which has a boring build up(Start a revolution) leading to a pretty good breakdown, giving a heavier feel for the album. The guitar doesn't rely to heavily on breakdowns, however the drums haven't really changed from the self-titled, keeping the same beat for the entire song. The riffs are pretty heavy, and Caleb's new high pitched screams are something not found in many bands(by that I mean the style and sound) and keeps the song flowing pretty straightforward. After this we have the highlight of the album, The Betrayal, lyrics about being abandoned and left behind song pretty generic, but with the concept of the album, it fits a second song quite nicely. Caleb's clean singing is a breath of fresh air for this band, sounding much more mature then Franck's vocals and keeping the sound they intended to reach out with very apparent. The breakdowns in this song sound crisp and don't sound like they needed something to be there, with a build up that actually ends the song quite nicely. The Hopeless follows this same formula, leading into the Reality and the Abduction, which follow the same trend as the first two tracks.
After The Abduction we have leading single The Motivation which shows the slight technical side of the band, with an actual guitar riff that doesn't sound rushed and lyrics that actually fit the track of the song. Caleb's emotional side comes out in the next track, The Wretched which is the person the album is talking about feeling like he has nothing left and his life is falling apart. Caleb's emotion is apparent in the vocals and the chorus for the song is quite possibly the best this album has to offer. After a slower bridge, the album finishes strong and with that ends what the album could have had. The Confrontation, The Family and The Eradication all follow the same formula and unfortunately show Attack Attack! hasn't fully perfected their sound. With terrible lyrics and god awful breakdowns filling the whole song, the rest of the album falls into sounding unrefined.
Attack Attack! finally made a name for themselves, losing the trance and auto-tune and showing a heavy, standard metalcore sound that could have taken them to higher places. With the departure of both John and Caleb, the album that they released falls into something most people will probably listen to for some nostalgia, but it won't go down in metalcore as a breakthrough album.
