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Bullet For My Valentine – Review – by Hannibal
I am going to put this first and foremost in this article so everyone understands right from the out set. I have been listening to this band for over 12 years. I have seen them every single time they have toured Australia since 2009 and I absolutely hold a bias when reviewing there music.
Now that I have gotten my bias out of the way, it is also important to remember that in 2018 they put out an album that I really didn’t care for. Never the less, It is 2021 and the Welsh quartet Bullet For My Valentine often shortened to Bullet or BFMV have dropped a new album. I have talked about how much I like Bullet on this blog before. They have been featured in articles about attending Concerts, top lists of songs and probably others I am forgetting. When they announced a new album I was excited. I also new I would be righting a blog post about it so here goes.
Info
Album: Bullet For My Valentine.
Artist: Bullet For My Valentine.
Released: November 5th 2021.
Record Label: Spinefarm.
genre: Metal.
Before we Get Started
Unless it is your first album, bands should absolutely never self title an album. When it is your first album I get it. That album is everything you have to offer. But after that you have other albums that it will be compared to. Just pick any other name, but in the end this is just a personal thing for me so let us dive in to the music.
Background
Bullet for My Valentine is a heavy metal band from Whales. The band is made up of members Matt Tuck on rhythm guitar and vocals, Michael Paget on lead guitar, Jamie Mathias on Bass, and Jason Bowld on Drums.
This self titled album is the bands seventh studio album, and the second to be written with the current lineup.
Enough background lets get in to the music.
01 Parasite
People who have listen to Bullet For My valentine in recent years might be forgiven for being confused with this opening song. This has a level of aggression not heard in there music since the early days. While they have made plenty of heavy tracks this one comes in hard from the word go and never lets up. Fast paced, allot of harsh vocals, and a short but sick guitar solo means this gets you ready for an album that was advertised as being the heaviest they have ever made.
This song was also the second single released from the album about 6 weeks before the album dropped. So very little came as a surprise from this track once the album came out. It did get a new intro though.
02 Knives
This song was the lead single from the album and honestly reviewing it now seems strange. I can’t claim a first listen here since I have played this song plenty since its release. It is heavy as all hell, and though it is not as fast paced as the opening track, it is still a very aggressive song.
Lacking any big hooks or clean choruses this is simply a track to get a mosh pit fucking moving.
03 My Reverie
My Reverie slows down allot from the opening tracks of this album, and brings more clean vocals to the table. this feels very much like an old school Bullet for my valentine song that could easily have been left over from early recording sessions.
All of this comes together to make this a dam good song. It is also the first track on the album that hadn’t been previously released as a single.
04 No Happy Ever After
Let us just jump right in here and say this is the most emo sounding track name on this album…ironically on the bands heaviest album to date.
I personally love this song. It has Nice and heavy verses that flow seamlessly in to big sing along style choruses. We even get a hardcore style breakdown!
This song feels like a pretty simple one compared to some of the other songs on the album, but this works in its favor.
05 Can’t Escape The Waves
This is one of the softest songs on this album, and also one of my personal favorites. There are allot of clean vocals especially when you consider the rest of the album.
This song starts out heavy and fast but slows down during the verses. The melody in the chorus is catchy as all hell and this has a grate sing along feel for the hole track.
This ends up standing out not for being super different, but for being what most people would come to expect from the band; while also managing to fit with the sound of the album.
06 Bastards
On the flip side in comes a song that is so different from what you might expect With a very dark feel.
The drum work on this song is some of my favorite on any bullet song ever released. It is accompanied by Relatively melodic guitar work through the opening half of the song, and some interesting melodies from the vocals. This song is a true stand out.
Plus who doesn’t love a song that includes a moment when in concert the crowd would get to scream fuck ’em all!
07 Rainbow Veins
This was another single released before the album came out, and I will admit this song had to grow on me. The hole song has a very creepy vibe, and it stands out as incredibly soft compared to the singles released before it.
A fine vocal performance and some fun guitar parts mean that I am not going to hit skip, but I am also not likely to listen to it much outside of putting on the album in full.
It says allot that this song is my least favorite on the album. If the worst they can do is still pretty good they are on good standing.
08 Shatter
“Its going to break me but that doesn’t matter, Another crack, watch me shatter!”
A single line can be enough to catch my attention in music. This song exists in that category. It has a little bit of everything.
It opens with the above line screamed before dropping in to a heavy riff perfect for face melting. Then clean vocals smoothly flow into heavy choruses. This song is simple, heavy and has a pretty good solo in the middle just to drive the point home.
09 Paralyzed
We come to the second last track of the album, and the speed is back!
One of the fastest songs on the album, and this one is fucking relentless. It is short, fast, and heavy, and feels like a song made to get a mosh pit going live.
They also seemed to have been inspired by slipknot to throw in some DJ scratching in this one.
10 Death By A Thousand Cuts
this track captures everything that this album is and they couldn’t have picked a better song to bring this album to a conclusion.
It is fast paced with drums that make me wish I could still play. It is heavy…matching the rest of the album, and it has some of the finest guitar work. Yet the chorus is an element that really makes it feel like a classic Bullet for my valentine song.
This is a song that ties the hole album together perfectly and is another one of my favorites.
As A stand Alone
It is hard to separate our opinions of a bands new album with out comparing it to previous albums. It is only natural to think of it in the bigger picture, But this album as a stand alone is brilliant.
As a fan of heavy metal I couldn’t ask for much more from an album. You have the fast songs like parasite and paralyzed. You have your slower but heavy tracks like shatter and knives. While songs like rainbow veins and Can’t escape the waves are a bit softer over all.
This album offers a little bit of everything that Bullet do and all of it is pulled off really well. It is enjoyable from start to finish and honestly when it comes to music I can’t ask for much more.
Altogether
So what if we do compare it to the back catalogue?
This album is heavy as fuck, which makes it much closer to the earlier sound of Bullet For My Valentine. Fans of the early albums like the Poison and Scream Aim Fire will certainly find that classic sound in Matt’s screaming With a little more guitar chugging heard on later albums. Chances are bullet fans of all ages will find something to like here.
I know personally I can’t wait to see them in concert putting these new songs in among the older ones.
Also if you hated Gravity the bands last album I promise this one is a hell of allot better.
Final thoughts and rating
I mean you have all worked out that I like this album by now. At least I hope so. If you are looking for a new metal release to check out I suggest this one.
If you don’t care for metal and still read this review I thank you.
9.5 out of 10.
Links
I will drop a few links here for you to check out.
Check out the album on Spotify here.
Listen to Shatter on Spotify here.
Listen to Shatter on Youtube here.
Check out Can’t escape the Waves on Spotify here.
You can listen to Can’t escape the Waves on Youtube here.
You can listen to Parasite on Spotify here.
Listen to Parasite on Youtube here.
Conclusion
Did you listen to the album? did you enjoy it. Was I to nice?
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