Review Summary: Generic, simple, and boring, even more than their previous effort (Yes, for some that may be hard to believe.) In a nutshell, just another AA album.
Asking Alexandria, the English "bad boys" of metalcore, right? known for their failed attempts to convince how "brutal" their music was, with massive amounts of breakdowns and screaming, but how "innovative" they also were with their electronic sounds and "catchy clean choruses". Their last album "Reckless and Relentless" proved that with very good production values, monotonous music and generic breakdowns can surprisingly be a bit fun to hear. The album was not bright or groundbreaking at all, and had these electronic parts which appeared out of nowhere and were not very pleasant to hear, but, good production and Danny's vocals (in studio) covered a lot of the dirt this album had.
Fast forward to 2013 and this band has released another album called "From death to destiny" (for starters, what the hell does that even mean? and the cover art?) If you have heard this band before, the first thing you will realize is that Danny Worsnop's voice has changed, a lot. His growls and screams aren't quite as high or low as they used to be, and his "clean" singing is also different. This practically takes most of the interesting part of Asking Alexandria's music. Even though Danny sings incredibly bad live, in studio, he was a somewhat "above average" voice ("Morte et Dabo" of the last album as an example of his versatile vocals.)With that voice gone, his new one just feels too simple and too overshadowed by his previous singing.
So what's left if it's not the vocals? well, nothing is left, the album in its entirety feels monotonous, generic, empty and too dull. A lot of the songs you will hear just feel the same, open strings, then a simple riff, then breakdown, chorus, another breakdown. Instruments sound just as hollow and empty as the vocals, they don't do anything to call your attention or to even make you try to hear this album completely. If you only hear the two songs they have released as singles (Killing You and The Death of Me) they sound incredibly the same. The only thing this album will do if you hear it will be to enter one ear, and crawl out of the other one, faster that what you think. As I heard this album I felt like the band was trying to show you and convince everyone about how "brutal" and "metal" they are, but at the same time that they can make these "old-school rock inspired and radio friendly songs" but in the process they fail disastrously. I could just go on and on about many other things that are wrong with this album, but there is just no point in doing so and would just be a waste of time, just as for many will be to listen to this album.
It's very difficult for a band to try to show that they are more mature musically, especially in AA's case, when they were never taken seriously since the beginning (and even in this album, a stripper on a vending machine in their cover art, makes it harder to take it seriously, really) Also, it's somewhat pointless to try change your musical roots or inspirations, as this band has claimed has done in this record, when the result is gonna be just as (or even more) generic or boring, as the music they made before.
AA's new album shows how they have moved into another type of "mature and unique" sound. But this sound of theirs feels as too simplistic, generic and boring, exactly as the one they previously had, resulting in a poor record, that in its whole duration has pretty much nothing to remember or to rescue.
