Hello fellow internet lovers this is Dean Walsh and I am one of the many reviews on this site and today I am going to begin with a review of an album. This album is by one of my favourite bands, but after listening to this album they have gone from number 1... to number 2! out of 5 (Top Favourite Bands)
Fever is the third studio album from Welsh metal core band Bullet For My Valentine, the album consists of very melodic guitar riffs which at times worked very well in making this album a lot more different that there previous two albums. Does that make it a good album? Well it all depends on what you like about Bullet For My Valentine; the first album the Poison in my opinion was a masterpiece centering around very fast pace hard hitting beats and mixing it with very slow and gracious melodies which separated Bullet For My Valentine from all the other metal bands in their field. The poison was also much more different due to the fact that each song linked together making a story about love, betrayal and revenge. The second album Scream Aim Fire was just as good as the poison album and was the album which secured their place as one of the best British metal bands in the UK as they would win that particular Kerrang award 4 times in a row. While Scream Aim Fire had better guitar riffs it drifted away from the lyrical side of their music – their lyrics were still well very well written in some songs like Waking The Demon and Hearts Burst Into Fire but you could definitely see the difference in their lyrics compared to the poison album and the story from the first album did make much more of a difference when it came to the overall flow of the album.
With Fever... Well. There certainly “change” but I mean with this album the lyrics become much more basic and well... bland. And it wasn’t as if we weren’t warned about change. In several Kerrang interviews they stressed time and time again that this album was going to be very different from their two previous albums and that they were planning on moving away from the typical all screaming no singing style and focus more on the melodic side and singing more remembrable lyrics for their fans while creating a more hard rock feel to the music instead of in your face breakdowns. But wait there’s more. Before the album was released they posted two teaser tracks on their fan page Your Betrayal and Begging For Mercy, which were both the complete opposite of what they had stressed in their interviews to the fans! Your Betrayal and Begging For Mercy are the two heaviest songs in the album with Your Betrayal having a hard hitting in your face rhythm from the start which is the centre point of the entire song, and Begging For Mercy consisting of almost all screaming and almost no singing! What’s the point in talking about the rock and roll style of your album if your then going to post the two heaviest songs on the album? But to its credit when they finally released The Last Fight as an actual single and not just another teaser it was a good example of the new rock and roll style that Bullet talked about while at the same time being able to show remnants of the older style of Bullet.
Well like any Bullet For My Valentine fan when I first bought this “album” I was excited to hear the new style that Bullet had to offer and on first listen could already see the new changes they brought to the album and felt that it was a well written stand alone album. But God did they change everything. After listening to the album a few times I realise that compared to the first two album it doesn’t feel like an album written by Bullet, I mean maybe it’s just me but we like screaming senselessly into peoples ears about shit we can barely make out – its the way God intended it. the album at times can be somewhat bland and boring like Breaking Out Breaking Down which for fuck sake is the most god awfull song on that entire album! It pains me to have to even mention this song but from what I could gather from the lyrics is about always staying positive and aiming high to achieve your goals - theirs nothing wrong about that but just mentioning things that are tough in life isn't going to give us a clear idea of the tough things you're facing in life, and the lyrics are so bland and basic it doesn’t feel as though they put any thought into them, it seems as though they just hide behind imagery saying that “there’s still a mountain left to climb” and that “each day will bring us brand new scars.” – hmm emo much? Something about it just doesn’t feel as though these lyrics actually mean anything to them its like they were just thrown in for filler. They did at times mention in interviews that they had in fact scrapped all of their previous lyrics as they felt they were to similar to lyrics from previous albums, and with the album already so far into production the lyrics at time just seem last minute and don’t really mean much to the band.
Now I’m not saying that all of the lyrics from this album are simply thrown in, the lyrics in songs like The Last Fight and Dignity which flow together very well with the music that follows. With that said I have to say that in my own personal opinion, the best song off the Fever album for me would have to be “Alone.” Not only is Alone a fast past song with memorable riffs but oh my god its soo good i mean from the open finger tappy part to the symphony violins – ALL METAL BANDS SHOULD USE SYMPHONY IN THEIR SONGS! IT IS MANDATORY I MIGHT HAVE EVEN STOOD TO LISTEN TO BREAKING OUT BREAKING DOWN A LITTLE LONGER. BREAKING OUT BREAKING DOWN! Although I was disappointed at the fact that only one song had a symphony orchestra in it, it did separate Alone from all the other songs on that album making it stand out and in my opinion is the best song on the Fever album.
Overall compared to the first two albums Fever is the worst of the three; its seems to counterbalance itself at times when for instance with every bad song like Breaking Out Breaking Down the better songs like Alone counterbalance the bad ones, but that wont improve the quality and continuity of those bad songs. By the time Scream Aim Fire came out, although it make Bullet the band they are today you could tell the difference between that and of the poison and naturally Fever was bound to slip up as well. I personally blame the band, not for the continuity of the album or what they written but just the way that they oversold their album in the countless interviews they had prior to its release. They spoke countless times about how this was to be their greatest album and that it was different from the other two. It was certainly different but that doesn’t always mean it’s going to be good. Overall I give this album a 6 out of 10; though creative and different from the previous albums, it seems as though Bullet lost track of their old roots or at least didn’t feature them enough to produce an above average album.
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