Album Review
Even I am losing my patience with bands that see the angry teen dollar sapping lure of metalcore and the commercial viability of emo then clumsily mashing them together into one contrived, fence sitting mess of whiny vocals, noodling melodies and gruff breakdowns. I liked it when He Is Legend did it (that cookie monster puppet that does the growled vocals for the video to “The Seduction” cracks me up), but the ensuing army of clean cut, comb over wearing Abercombie and Fitch clad scenesters is getting silly. Don’t try to pull the Kashmir sweater over my eyes by dressing up your MTV hugging pop punk/emo rock with some forced deep death metal growls and some piecemeal breakdowns.
Funnily enough, And Their Name Was Treason starts promisingly with the pretty burly initial salvo of “Heartless” leading me to believe this might be a pretty solid Poison The Well type Orange Co. metalcore album, but then the song and pretty much the rest of the album degenerates into vapid poppy emo-core, with a few sprinklings of ill placed feigned brutality. “Your Way With Words Is Through Silence” and “Second Glance” cull from every commercial gleaned ‘metal’ act of the last year that mixes nasal whine and layered harmonics to deliver essentially a more serious form of punk. The random injections of guttural vocal come across as convincing as the Queen of England hacking up a loogie.
“Casablanca Sucked Anyways” (although I initially and hopefully though it might be a cover of Ultravox’s “Vienna”) tries sooooo hard to be menacingly meaningful with the vocals this time dueling over the drippy riffs while the clichériffically titled “You Should Have Killed Me When You Had the Chance” just saunters with pseudo machismo amid the heartfelt and oh so meaning choral section. Woe the fuck is me, get a porno and wack off, and forget the girl that eternally leaves you broken hearted. “If Looks Could Kill” has a modicum of balls but the insipid whine of Jeremy Mckinnon drags the track into a tear filled emo vortex and delivers the whining climax of requisite sniveling acoustic ballad “You Had Me at Hello”. Blleeeeeaaaaahhhgghhh. They try to follow it up with the lumbering, if forced grooves of “1958” and “Sound the Alarm” but it’s too little too late.
If you want to hear how evocative harmonies and real metalcore are mixed, listen to the new Life in Your Way album, not this contrived, fence sitting bullshit.
Funnily enough, And Their Name Was Treason starts promisingly with the pretty burly initial salvo of “Heartless” leading me to believe this might be a pretty solid Poison The Well type Orange Co. metalcore album, but then the song and pretty much the rest of the album degenerates into vapid poppy emo-core, with a few sprinklings of ill placed feigned brutality. “Your Way With Words Is Through Silence” and “Second Glance” cull from every commercial gleaned ‘metal’ act of the last year that mixes nasal whine and layered harmonics to deliver essentially a more serious form of punk. The random injections of guttural vocal come across as convincing as the Queen of England hacking up a loogie.
“Casablanca Sucked Anyways” (although I initially and hopefully though it might be a cover of Ultravox’s “Vienna”) tries sooooo hard to be menacingly meaningful with the vocals this time dueling over the drippy riffs while the clichériffically titled “You Should Have Killed Me When You Had the Chance” just saunters with pseudo machismo amid the heartfelt and oh so meaning choral section. Woe the fuck is me, get a porno and wack off, and forget the girl that eternally leaves you broken hearted. “If Looks Could Kill” has a modicum of balls but the insipid whine of Jeremy Mckinnon drags the track into a tear filled emo vortex and delivers the whining climax of requisite sniveling acoustic ballad “You Had Me at Hello”. Blleeeeeaaaaahhhgghhh. They try to follow it up with the lumbering, if forced grooves of “1958” and “Sound the Alarm” but it’s too little too late.
If you want to hear how evocative harmonies and real metalcore are mixed, listen to the new Life in Your Way album, not this contrived, fence sitting bullshit.
Baer |
posted on 8/2009 |
This album simply does not belong on a metal website.
I am a fan of A day to remember. They are talented musicians whose work in the studio requires minimal tampering. They are; however, really a pop punk/ hardcore band. They bring entirely different elements to the table than a metal band should. For what they are, they are very good. This album will be ripped apart on this website just as if their was a pop punk review website any of the very talented metal bands listed here would be torn apart and called "gay ass dirty redneck headbanger shit."
JStone |
posted on 5/2007 |
I recently started listening to A Day to Remember when they played in my hometown a while back and they turned the place upside down. It was def. a GREAT show and I've seen a many of shows from Norma Jean, Between the Buried and Me, Fear Before the March of Flames, Job For a Cowboy, The Autumn Offering, The Confession, The Fully Down, Bless the Fall, Journey, Metallica, Godsmack, Mayday Parade, Say it Twice, Shadow Agency, The Awkard Romance..and this band stands out a lot with some of these. I think people should stop whining about whether they're possers or the way they dress and listen to the music..and stfu