As a huge CYB, SS, TIAH and Sempiternal fan, I wasn't excited going into this album. But I don't know, something really caught me about this album. There is a lot of emotion that went into it. There are still heavy guitar tones in there, they are just spaced out by more mid paced, slower intricate guitar. Oli still screams a little, yells a good deal, but he does mostly sing. It's certainly different. I didn't really even think I'd like it, but I don't know, something really clicked with me. I keep thinking back to how Oli says that "screaming couldn't capture what emotions he was trying to convey" and I keep thinking that is more true with every listen. When he does scream a bit, it makes it so much more impactful.
It's worth noting that every song is around the 3:30-4 minute mark. On Suicide Season, the songs were all longer. I kinda think the longer songs allowed for more complex songs and structures, but each second of this album feels like it has more going on. Each second is more thought over, and honed, and perfected.
I wouldn't even say I loved any song on first listen either. But they grew on me. I started realizing how much I was singing Throne to myself, or the stupid catchy "true friends stab you in the front".
Suicide Season and There is a Hell will always hold a special place in my heart. They are phenomenal albums that radically altered the metalcore scene. But now that BMTH is done with that genre, we just have to look to other, younger bands to do so. People grow up, people mature, they mellow out. The party-ers of "Diamonds are Forever" are gone, as they should be. You can't stay young forever. I think SS came out of a youthful energy that they just don't have anymore. That makes me sad, but letting yourself wallow in the past diminishes the present. I just tell myself to more forward as well.
Favorite Songs: Doomed, Throne, Avalanche, Drown, Blashpemy
