Review Summary: It wears off on you after the first listen.
I'll be frank here, guys. I'm not the biggest Bullet fan in the world. I've come to like a handful of their songs over the years, but I never sought them out thoroughly. But when I did, all I could ascertain was the thought of, "Why was I recommended this?" They appeal to those who like mainstream radio-friendly rock, but they implement aspects of thrash and even metalcore as a means of having a more broader audience. I was never eager to write home of the screams. That is, until I heard "You Want a Battle (Here's a War)" Suddenly, I came to the conclusion that Bullet for My Valentine had evolved and were bringing something cohesive to the table. Initial listens of this album altogether was by all means a passible experience. It was on that dreaded repeat listening that I found the cracks and crevices this album manifests.
I'll be frank again here, guys. I was cringing at the track "Broken." Frontman Matt Tuck just has no grit or dimension to his cleans. His uncleans can pass on a good day, but traditional vocals just don't seem like his cup of tea these days. But who knows, maybe that's just me.
A recurring problem with this record is the lack of quality in the choruses. And this is pivotal to determining the worth of the tracks given here. The choruses make you want to skip the remainder of the track, which is bad news for Bullet, the Welsh metal suit, seeing as their verses, like Tuck's uncleans, can squeak by when the time is right.
Opening track "V" is just another cringe-worthy piece of work, or lack thereof. Not much work to be found when it comes right down to it. This track opens with this annoyingly distorted riff that sets the uninspired and lazy tone the rest of the album embodies. "Worthless" is a pretty solid track to be completely honest. Tuck's screams sound competent here, and the instrumentation is in sync and on point. Perhaps it's a good thing that Bullet for My Valentine has a pretty even split mix of highs and lows on this record, because it can be said that everything balances itself out. But in my eyes, at least, it creates inconsistency more than anything else.
I'll be frank one more time here, guys. "Hell or High Water" is the track that ended my latest dance with the music devil. The opening riff is so annoyingly constructed with no conceptual basis around it, that I literally had a chill down my spine. Tuck's attempts to reach a higher pitch with his cleans fails miserably. Perhaps refraining from going all over the place with his voice would suffice more than just opting to leave a huge jumbled mess for the listener.
To conclude, let's go back to my thesis opening; this album wears off on you. Furthermore, I enjoyed a handful of these songs on first listen. But rather than supposedly lackluster tracks growing on me, it's a case of having what I thought were solid tracks just letting their formulaic flaws just completely overtake what this album had initially garnered in my book. Suffice to say, I won't be playing this one again.
