Review Summary: Fresh new vocalist, stale formula.
To be honest, Asking Alexandria is a band that gets way too much hate simply for their looks, fanbase, or their debut album. While they certainly haven't put out anything revolutionary or anything up to par with the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, they aren't a terrible band simply because of their scenecore looks or stupid fanbase. While "Stand Up and Scream" has valid reasons to be disliked (bad songwriting, the screaming might sound absolutely horrible for some people), ever since "Stand Up and Scream" came out they have been trying to move away from throwing in "f**k" and "s**t" into their lyrics for the hell of it along with random, unfitting synth/electronic beats. They began to experiment a bit more with Reckless and Relentless and further experimented with hard rock-esque album From Death To Destiny, showing that they don't want to do the same old "crabcore"-esque music they were doing during the Stand Up and Scream days. With Danny Worsnop departing to focus more on We Are Harlot in 2014, the band quickly recruited Denis Stoff to fill his shoes, and this is what makes the album miles better than anything with Worsnop as vocalist in the vocal delivery department.
With that said, however, The Black is a return to their Stand Up and Scream roots with Reckless and Relentless/From Death to Destiny influence. And since they're for the most part going back to the Stand Up and Scream roots (minus the for-the-hell-of-it swearing), this album DOES contain a ton of random, out of place synth/electronic beats. They do experiment on this album, however, it isn't really much compared to the kind of stuff they did on From Death to Destiny. This is what makes The Black suffer; it follows an already-done formula that many people simply do not like, other than the remaining people in the scene fanbase and the occasional guilty pleasure people. What does make this album better than Stand Up and Scream is Stoff's vocals, which are miles better than Worsnop's on any album. He can scream much better, and he doesn't sound like a generic country singer like Worsnop did on their third album (he also sounds like that on We Are Harlot's debut). The guitar work is fine and the drummer is average, but that doesn't hurt the album as much as the formula following that runs rampant on the majority of tracks. What makes this album better than average is Stoff's vocals, and I honestly think of him as a Ukranian Joel Faviere (Dear Chandelier, Get Scared), with a unique voice and impressive vocal range.
Pros:
-Denis Stoff
-Experimental tracks such as "I Won't Give In" and "Here I Am"
Cons:
-Follows the "Stand Up and Scream" formula
Highlights: I Won't Give In, Here I Am
