Artist: Bullet For My Valentine
Album: Temper Temper
Genre: Metalcore
Hearing some mixed reviews of the new Bullet For My Valentine?
The first track Breaking Point starts out solid. But with horrible sounding drums, it sounds like they are trying to be like Avenged Sevenfold and failing horribly. The chorus sounds a bit more like old Bullet. Sad part is it only starts sounding good near the end of the song and then it’s gone. Such potential but ends up being forgettable.
Track two: Truth Hurts has some good lyrics. The guitar in this one just repeats over and over. Once again this is another track that starts to get better, but near the end. It starts to sound like an old school 90s metal song. Too bad it’s over when it starts to sound good.
The title track falls for track three, Temper Temper. This is probably the worst song on the CD. It’s not original at all. The ‘Temper Temper Time to Explode’ get’s old and sounds corny. This one is pretty much skip worthy. Doesn’t even feel awesome when you listen to it.
P.O.W. comes out of the blue with a good start. Track four starts to have potential and I love the guitar work in it. Not as heavy as old school Bullet but definitely a powerful song. This one is probably one of my favorites on the album. It’s got the lyrics nailed and the song just mimics the dark tone. Reminds me of the good times listening to melodic metal. Reminds me of why I like Bullet For My Valentine.
With P.O.W. in our rear view mirror it’s going to be hard to get better, but now there is hope considering so far the album hasn’t been their best. Now we have track five, Dirty Little Secret. And no not the All-American Rejects kind. Already it sounds solid. Digging the guitar work more in this one. I like when it breaks down and get’s slower. That guitar is great. It suffers from poor lyrics. ‘You chewed me up and spat me on the floor, you’re an animal, you’re an animal.’ Everything else in the song is good. This is a perfect example of where musically they shine. Lyrically, they’re horrible.
Moving on to track six, we have Leech. ‘Nobody’s listening and nobody cares’ The lyrics are matching about what I’m feeling for this album. So far I was looking up with P.O.W. but with this party crashing anthem…I’m very skeptical. I’m starting to sound repetitive, but this track has no musical or lyrical want to re-listen.
Dead To The World, now this intro is what I’m talking about. The lyrics are starting to sound a bit better here on track seven. This is also one of the longest tracks on the album. So we hope for something epic by now. With this song it once again sounds something like ‘I Won’t See You Tonight, Part I’ by Avenged Sevenfold. This song proves that if they sit down and actually think about the lyrics they can make something. Why do I feel that near the end of the song it sounds like a slowed down ‘The Day That Never Comes’ by Metallica? Is it just me?
Now we’ve moved on to track eight, Riot. I’m starting to see a trend with copying song names already? All-American Rejects and now Three Days Grace? But I digress. This song just seems like filler. Nothing special.
Feel the thunder with track nine, Saints & Sinners. Every once and a while there is a track that stands out. Things are starting to feel half done. This song has great potential and probably one of the highlights of the album. Sadly, like the rest, it feels like it picks up near the end and it just feels half-done.
This is the track that I’ve been curious about. Track ten is Tears Don’t Fall (Part 2). The first complaint I have is right off the bat. ‘Let’s go, AGAIN!’ Did I seriously just hear that? There are many songs that have great sequels (example: Metallica’s The Unforgiven). This does not work. It’s sluggish and cheesy at best. They stated that they put out on Facebook what song the fans would want to hear a sequel or Part 2 of. Tears Don’t Fall took the win. Too bad it’s the worst song on the album. Even when bands do crappier remakes of the original song (example: Hero by Machinae Supremacy) I would rather listen to those than this.
So we’re apparently ‘Dead Inside’ from track eleven, Livin’ Life (On The Edge of A Knife). This must be from having to endure Part 2 of Tears Don’t Fall. This track though, makes up for what’s been left behind. I enjoyed this track. And I think it shines as one of the best on the album. The song carries throughout, does not have any weird breaks or transitions. It’s very fluid and maintains good rhythm.
Well fellow music lovers, we’re at the end. Track twelve Not Invincible tells me that Bullet For My Valentine must not like Crossfade. Okay bad jokes aside. This ends the album nicely. It’s screaming for you to not give up on Bullet. I found this frequently with bands that put out half-done albums. They make the last two tracks sound good enough to bring you back for more. This one finishes up the album but doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.
In conclusion Temper Temper does not soar to new heights. In fact I would say it’s the worst Bullet For My Valentine album they have ever made. I’m not sure what the band is going through right now. But they had three years to make another album and it just feels rushed. I know they have talent. Here’s to hoping Bullet can recover from this. From what I’ve seen this album has split a wedge between some fans.
Most of the time when a band makes a bad album I can disconnect from the fact that they are in fact the band I know. Sometimes I can think of it as something new, different, and completely 180 from what they are. But this I could not do. It just didn’t even capture me even if it wasn’t Bullet.
Crimzen Rating: 2/5
