Review Summary: Imminence show a lot of promise, but undermine themselves with a lack of individuality.
This is Goodbye isn't set to be released until the 31st of March, but considering I've heard the album already, and there's another album out on that date that I want to review, I've decided to review this one now.
Imminence are a four piece Alt Rock/Hardcore/Post Hardcore/Whoknowscore band from Sweden. This Is Goodbye is the band's second full length release, and whilst there's plenty to be enjoyed here, this album has received a fair deal of flak up to it's release.
There's several contextual things you need to know about Imminence before I begin. Firstly, they used to be pretty heavy, their music consisted of lots of riffs and screams and it was pretty good from what I've heard, however it was nothing spectacular. Secondly, now they're not very heavy, and lots of people are saying they've ripped off Bring Me The Horizon. Finally, they have ripped off Bring Me The Horizon a bit, and I will be comparing them to Bring Me The Horizon a lot in this review. However, I think this album is more fun than That's The Spirit, so that's also something to bare in mind.
Putting all that aside, this album is a fairly enjoyable listen. There are two key things that make this album good. Number one being vocalist Eddie Berg, who has an outright fantastic singing voice, delivering some albeit generic lyrics in catchy choruses and verses with a powerful voice filled with emotion and passion. The second thing is the production, which is very, very good. This record was produced by Berg and the bands guitarist Harald Barrett, as well as producer Simon Peyron, who worked on the vocals for this album. The best way to appreciate the production here is to pretend Bring Me The Horizon haven't been doing it for the last 5 years, but what you've got here at it's core is a massive sounding album, which is backed up by a solid performance from all members.
Whilst all the songs here are catchy and enjoyable listens, I feel as though some of them could've been shorter. Every track on here is pretty much 4 minutes long, and the ones that fall short of that mark are closer to it than they are to being 3 and a half minutes long. This isn't necessarily a bad thing considering the record is only 11 tracks long when you don't include the 3 acoustic versions, but if you do, the run time totals at nearly an hour. Someone like Dream Theater can get away with long run times, but when your tracks boil down to catchy choruses and upbeat instrumentals, maybe you need to include one less chorus per song.
I can certainly see why older fans of Imminence are upset by this transition in sound. Back in the day when I wouldn't listen to anything without a double kick pedal in it, I was a big fan Bring Me The Horizon's Count Your Blessings, and I followed them as they gradually made their way to where they are now. At the time I was a little bit put off by the change of tone between There is a Hell... and Sempiternal, but looking back on it, Sempiternal is a great album. The problem you have with Imminence is, they haven't just evolved and innovated a new sound, they've emulated someone else's, and that appears to be the key reason people aren't happy.
You've got some major pros and major cons with this record. The pros;- you're listening to a well produced, poppy and catchy album with some clear talent in the mix, and if you're into that kind of thing, you're going to have a good time. The cons being that if you're into that kind of thing, it's probably because you like Bring Me The Horizon and hearing a band use the same elements in such a similar way is going to be off putting. In some places it's so similar that I could probably tell a friend that Oli Sykes left Bring Me The Horizon and they got a new singer, show them one of Imminence's songs, and they would absolutely believe me.
Reviewing this is like marking a kids work in school who's done everything right, but you know full well they've copied it off Wikipedia and just changed a few words here and there. When it gets down to it, this album is good, it just isn't unique, and for that reason I see this getting cast aside as copycat record trying to capitalize on the success of another band's tracks. I want to like what I'm hearing because it is good, but it's very hard to ignore the existence of a band as big as BMTH. My personal favourites here are Broken Love, This is Goodbye and Desert Place. I'd recommend giving this a listen if not just to see the potential here if the band develop something more original, which I think they probably can. Give it a go, Imminence, I believe in you.
