Review Summary: Broken hearts.
If anything, it’s admirable The Amity Affliction have lasted as long as they have. Having formed in 2003, they didn’t hit it big until 2010’s
Youngbloods, a surprising breath of fresh air in an Australian metalcore scene dominated by Parkway Drive. It showcased Amity’s knack for memorable songs without sounding stagnant. Sadly, that was six years ago, and Amity have declined ever since;
Chasing Ghosts was far less varied,
Let The Ocean Take Me relied too heavily on its theme and sounded watered down (heh), and now
This Could Be Heartbreak shows Amity at a lowpoint, combining their declining songwriting potential with vapid vocals and recycled riffs.
Although songwriting hasn’t been a strongpoint of Amity since
Youngbloods, here it’s taken to a new level of mediocrity; songs consist of boring hooks, uninteresting guitar lines and layered vocals. Clean vocalist Ahren Stringer clearly can’t sing like he used to, as shown in the obvious auto-tune applied throughout the album, particularly in that of the title track. His pop-punk-esque vocals are far too grating to help the already-lacking hooks. Even with harsh vocalist Joel Birch taking on some clean vocal duties, his low cleans sound far too similar to the genre’s ‘softer’ bands. Although his harsh vocals suit the band, he doesn’t differ the tone at which he screams, which certainly doesn’t help when trying to sound ‘emotional’ (take
Tearing Me Apart as an example).
Even the guitars are void of any character or substance; many of the guitar lines are typical metalcore affair, leaving much to be desired. The solo in
I Bring The Weather With Me is uninspired and boring, and doesn’t take centre stage as much as it should. The rhythm guitar is generic and uninteresting, providing as minimal is needed to suit the song. In addition, the bass line is practically non-existent, which is a wasted opportunity considering the frequency of the more subdued moments on the album. Even the drums, whilst trying to sound exciting, remains generic and relies too heavily on the metalcore trope of rolls. Although this could be down to the lackluster production on the album, in which guitars sound like they were recorded from a distance, Birch’s vocals were seemingly recorded in a cave, and the orchestrals overpower the rest of the band, production can’t be blamed for boring instrumentation.
Perhaps what’s most worrying, however, is the frequency of terrible moments on the album; the terribly named
O.M.G.I.M.Y contains an extremely awkward and forced attempt at emotion in the form of a ‘voicemail’ at the end of the song, in which Birch says “…you said we were both fucked up. You said you understood because you were fucked up too…”, which leads into
All ***ed Up, a ‘soft’ song featuring more vocals from Birch. The ‘emotion’ on the album all sounds so fake and programmed that any sort of emotion Amity could have potentially evoked is washed away by awful lyrics. The chorus even ‘painfully’ states “The truth is/We’re all ***ed up”. Inspirational.
And before you know it, the album passes through one ear and out the other. The only slightly interesting song, closer
Blood In My Mouth, is due to it sounding less condensed; the guitar line sweeps between each ear, the transition between the heavy portions and the more subdued repreives and chorus is smooth, and the instrumentation is far more enjoyable. But that’s the issue; the instrumentation being only slightly better than the rest of the album makes it by far the best track. The lifeless and generic guitar lines coupled with a poor dual-vocal performance leaves so much to be desired, and if anything, this is an indication that The Amity Affliction just isn’t worth our time anymore.
