Review Summary: The war torn stories that he told
As the newest Defeater record roars into life, there’s a very definite air of familiarity. Opener Bastards is typical Defeater fair, and by typical I mean the exact same sound as everything the band have done up to this point. Derek Archambault’s vocals are pretty much the same as ever, resorting to the typical fare, angst-ridden and strained with emotion. On the other hand, his backing vocals (I think they’re his) are as intense as ever, and convey the desperation and longing found in the album’s concept much better than the rambling, forced lead vocals. The riffs aren’t bad per say, but are very much playing by the numbers, while every other member pretty much just revolves around the guitar like a never-ending carousel, desperately trying to find an entry point. But no such luck, and, ultimately, any melodic hardcore band formed in the last five years could have made this record. This is what makes this such a massive disappointment. Lyrically this carries on the theme from the previous records, but really no one should care about the overarching concept when the music delivering it is so boring.
After Bastards, pretty much every song begins to sound the same. The acoustic songs that made Empty Days moderately less tiresome than this are now absent, and it seems the talent that has at times shone through in this band may as well not exist here. Maybe I’m looking at Travels and Lost Ground through rose-tinted glasses, but it seems that the grit has been filtered out and replaced by a horribly boring attempt at imitating some of the other big names in this genre. The problem is that their peers in Verse and Counterparts are capable of more advanced and original song structures than these guys, and as the band whistle away their ability you can only scratch your head and wonder why their most anticipated release to date couldn’t have been the one to finally cement their status as kings of the genre.
