Review Summary: The difference between you and me is that I get the last laugh
The revival of this style of hooky, captivating mall-emo that’s been blowing up throughout these last few years has been nothing short of an absolute treat. It’s like it was made for those of us looking to recapture the feeling of what the Hot Topic-shopping mall kids of yesteryear felt. Strolling down the street, Walkman in hand, with
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,
Sing the Sorrow, or another such album from said era blaring. If I’m honest, albums like
A Cure to Poison the World feel like an absolute love letter to that era.
First off, the lead singer, Damien Douleur, sounds like the lovechild of Gerard Way and Bert McCracken, and that’s a compliment. His emotionally charged vocal delivery absolutely shines through, especially on songs like “Cursed” where he almost fills the void left by
Dying Is Your Latest Fashion-era Escape the Fate after Ronnie went off the deep end and turned into an unstoppable juggernaut that, either in spite of or because of all the raucous things he says on the Internet and at shows, has had a massive spike in mainstream relevance whether we like it or not. Another such highlight vocally is the closer “Before You Go”, which while guided by nostalgia through and through, doesn’t fail in the slightest to be emotionally resonant.
Emo as a genre is built off melodrama, and The Requiem here delivers that in spades while not feeling like a self-parody (see: TX2). The sole break is the piano interlude “L’exquisite douleur”, which while only lasting 53 seconds, is something that maybe could’ve went longer. And the backing band behind Damien is no slouch here - I hear
Three Cheers-style riffs all over this thing, and the production team has done a wonderful job making everything hit just right. Maybe it could benefit from being a little bit more musically adventurous, as this is pretty standard, by-the-books mall-emo tinged post-hardcore, but everything here is in its right place.
Overall, the hooks are solid, the vocal performance is tremendous, the production helps accentuate the positives. While it isn’t reinventing the wheel (let’s be real, almost nothing in this revival is), it’s such a good fun dose of nostalgia that’s not afraid to get the listener a bit choked up from the intense emotion in spots…if you’re willing to let
A Cure to Poison the World in.
