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 Meh Oct 19, 2009
The U.K.'s Bullet For My Valentine have never been a truly great band. Everybody knows that they were a Johnny-come-lately to the 21st Century's exploding metalcore scene if there ever was one, and most would agree that even if they weren't, they still wouldn't rank among modern metal's elite. However, they HAVE always had the potential to be great! Although somewhat lacking, 2006's debut, "The Poison," was catchy, well-produced, confident-sounding, and a showcase for their ample and exceptional instrumental prowess. Unfortunately, the follow-up, 2008's "Scream Aim Fire," because it does not cash in on that first album's promise. It makes for a maddening listen, too, because no matter how many times it is spun, the listener is left wanting. Indeed, this is one step not in the right direction -- and not even just a sidestep, but a full-fledged step backwards for the band.
BFMV stray away from the path that a lot of metalcore bands take by drawing influence from brutal melodic death metal acts such as At The Gates, Arch Enemy, and The Black Dahlia Murder; instead, they lean more towards the likes of Soilwork, recent In Flames, and Killswitch Engage. Thus, their sound is now quite a bit more melodic than it was two years ago. No, no, there's nothing inherently wrong with this; and there are even some advantages that come with it. For example, this record features neat guitar harmonies, better and more technical guitar solos, and much more prominently audible and muscular bass lines. But on the downside, the great, blistering double bass onslaughts, careening shred sections, guttural vocals, punishing breakdowns, and meaty rhythms that were a big part in making "The Poison" so enjoyable are now completely absent. There are a lot fewer memorable guitar licks this time around, too. As a result, "Scream Aim Fire" sounds watered down and sluggish; and when compared to most of the rest of the metalcore fare on the market, and it often borders on being almost TOO melodic (one might be tempted to call it "pansycore".) And this fact is made even more disappointing when considering all of its pre-release (and, in retrospect, falsified) hype: frontman Matthew Tuck promised the new material would be a lot heavier and more aggressive.
Yes, there is a hot guitar lick, well-written melody, and infectious chorus or two be found here. But the at over 52 minutes in length, these eleven tracks could stand to be more compact. Plus, the songs themselves are very hit-or-miss, thus making it a bit of a chore to sit through the album in full. On the plus side, excellent tracks like "Waking The Demon" and "Last To Know" overflow with memorable guitar chops. The former is a blistering and propulsive number with dueling, streamlined chainsaw guitar attacks, amazing riffage (including some that is, hands down, the best Bullet For My Valentine have written to date), drumming, bubbling bass lines, deft drumming, pounding rhythms and a climatic and well-placed breakdown; whereas the latter is probably the set's thrashiest and most technical piece. It is propelled by dizzying guitar whirlwinds. Elsewhere, the fiery, thrashy, and hard-grooving "Eye Of The Storm" is strictly decent, as are the heavy and hard-rockin'-yet-simultaneously-melodic "End Of Days," and the pleasant-enough, strong hook-laden, arena-ready closing ballad, "Forever And Always."
But there are several mediocre or throwaway tracks present here, as well. Tracks like the title song, "Disappear" (which sports a great, ripping guitar solo), and the overlong and clearly My Chemical Romance-indebted "Deliver Us From Evil" are listenable. Yet, they should be chalked up as average-at-best because they all have generic melodic choruses, and none of them are particularly deep or meaningful, and none of them really bring anything new to the table. The radio-readiness of them is also quite annoying. And now, on to the ballads. As the album's first love song, the cliche-titled "Hearts Burst Into Fire" can claim to have some guitar crunch, good, steady bass work, and gorgeous melodic solos and harmonies throughout; but those good aspects are counterbalanced with plodding tempos, lifeless momentum, cheesy lyrics, and syrupy, over-processed vocals. Lastly, BFMV have got to get over making songs like "Take It Out On Me" and "Say Goodnight," two pieces of positively reeky, modern rock balladry which practically have "filler" and "tailor made for radio play" written all over them. No kidding, if it weren't for the intro of "Say Goodnight," which has acoustic guitars that evoke Pantera's "Cemetery Gates," these two tunes would be completely skippable. And some of their lyrics -- i.e. "I would sacrifice the world, just to be with you" -- are so painfully sappy, they may make you want to blow your nose on a pancake.
To be fair, "Scream Aim Fire" isn't a terrible or completely unlistenable album by any means. It just lacks too much inspiration, consistency, cohesion, "meat," timelessness, depth, and backbone to be a very good one. And to their credit, it appears that Bullet For My Valentine had good intentions. It appears they tried to do what Atreyu did in 2007 (with "Lead Sails Paper Anchor"), and outgrow the plain old "metalcore" label and become more of a traditional metal band. Even so, "SAF" is still just another metalcore release, and a very mediocre, bland, and unoriginal one, at that. Hopefully BFMV will get another shot at achieving greatness before the rest of the world forgets about and/or is fed up with and closes the book on them for good.
 bullet for my valentine cd. Apr 03, 2009
what can i say. i love this cd. if you like stuff in the vane of iron maiden and stuff. go out and buy this cd already. its very good.
0 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Trivium Rip Off Feb 03, 2009
Bullet For My Valentine are a Trivium ripoff, and the worst part is, Trivium isn't even that great of a band! There's nothing worse than having a sound similar to a band that wasn't that great to begin with. If you like Trivium, you'll probably enjoy this, and if you don't, steer clear of this like it's the plague.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Its not bad.. Dec 29, 2008
Bullet For My valentine..release a pretty good Sophomore..its not bad cause there is still material that brings you back to the sound that made you fall in love with them. they have great songs on here..but they have also jumped on the band wagon with the other bands that want to release Metallica sounding music..its not all that horrible cause the songs still have little hits of sound of the band..and like i said..there is still material that reminds you of the poison..witch i think it's a sound that better fits them..cause i think that all that Metallica stuff has been done already and they were bringing some good uniqueness to a genre that has been quickly becoming stale and boring..i gave it 3 stars cause its just ok..didn't think that it was better than the poison..im not hating on them cause i love Bullet..and they are trying alot of new thing in the album that sounds great but its only the Metallica sounding stuff that just sounds old and boring cause its been done already..
Can you hear the thunder? Can you feel the rain, it pours? Dec 06, 2008
"Scream Aim Fire" is a really good album and awesome second release from Bullet For My Valentine. A friend of mine got me into them last year, but it wasn't until I heard this album a while ago that I really got into their stuff. And I'm glad I did, because there's actually a lot of great stuff on this album.
BFMV may get lumped into the ever-growing subgenre of metalcore bands, or emo, or whatever the stereotype is, but actually I hear a lot of influence from bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Trivium (well, they did have a metalcore sound early on, but they're still awesome!), even a little Megadeth and Slayer. There's plenty of great riffs, solos, lyrics and drums throughout this album, and the standout tracks to me are:
"Scream Aim Fire": The title track is the opening song off this album, and it comes charging at you at 100 miles an hour! Lots of great, heavy riffs and a mind-blowing growl that Matt Tuck holds for a long time!
"Eye of the Storm": Another high-energy, fast-packed song with more awesome riffs and soloing, with cool lyrics to boot.
"Hearts Burst Into Fire": Reminds me a little of Ozzy's "Mama I'm Coming Home", but faster and more rock-y. A beautiful, clean guitar opens with a passionate solo over, then some melodic, fast riffs and nice vocal melodies bring us through the rest of the song.
"Waking The Demon": An aggressive song with heavier riffs and darker lyrics, but actually feature some nice vocal melodies, a cool drum fill and a wild guitar solo. Plus, the vocal-only ending of "Wa-king the deee-mon!" is epic!
"Last to Know": The shortest song on the album, but still packs lots of energy and darker lyrics in the vein of "Waking The Demon" while still maintaining the quality musicianship of the band.
"Forever and Always": Another melodic, ballad-styled song that ends the album in a great way. A bunch of cool riffs fill this six-and-a-half minute plus song up and leaves you feeling great.
Although I feel the rest of the album could use a little more variety in the feel, such as the progressive, ballad style of songs such as "Forever and Always" or "Hearts Burst Into Fire" to make the album more dynamic and interesting, "Scream Aim Fire" is still an awesome metal album that you should check out today!
If you wanna hear a mix of speed, melody, talent, heaviness and even lightness wrapped together, get your hands on a copy of this! I'm eagerly awaiting BFMV's next album, thanks especially to this one! Thanks for the time, and peace.
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