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Bullet For My Valentine is one of those bands that are so frustrating they make me want to punch babies. The band does have some musical potential, even though they aren't one of the most impressive acts out there and only seem to feed off the mainstream stereotypes of incorporating an Emo sound and atmosphere to their material to feed into that culture well. Fever is the group's third full-length release and, in many ways, shows some great growth for the band, but much like the band's previous outings, it's just that one constant nagging issue that plagues this album from being more then worth a good laugh at times, and that would be the whiny vocal style that adorns every track on this release. Aside the vocals, Fever is just an album that can't seem to get the tracks right. Musically, many of the songs on this release are solid, much like the old school Heavy Metal inspired title track, "Fever", which is actually a really impressive track and would be something that would break the band out into other musical realms if it weren't for the whiny emo-esque vocals that are performed and cause this heavy song to sound like a musical contradiction. Even the first track off this release, "Your Betrayal", is a decent Metalcore track that, while it brings many of the style's stereotypes into play, winds up being an enjoyable experience after a while, but again, the vocal performance is enough to drag it down, mostly thanks to the whispering used on the song "Your Betrayal" which winds up making the song laugh out of loud bad mixed with potentially good. But, the way the song is set up, it actually calls for that kind of performance, leaving this track's letdowns mostly to bad musical composition and performance. Screaming would have better suited it, or even just an angry spoken word section. While Fever does have some good music, there are still some generic tracks that are simply boring. The acoustic ballad track "A Place Where You Belong" is one of the most cliche' Rock ballads you could come across, and it's about this point the album does start to break down. "Alone" is just a Metalcore track that is chock full of generic guitar riffs that don't really bring any form of impact that the first three tracks on this release had, and the following track "Breaking Out, Breaking Down" seems to find the band bringing in some alright Metalcore concepts and mixing them with mainstream Pop Punk and Alternative Rock elements to make one of the most overly generic songs that actually fit the whiny vocals, which, shockingly, also has the most energetic vocal performances on the entire release that is actually tolerable. Picture this song as Killswitch Engage style Metalcore but dumbed down to the most generic form possible while it's being raped by Good Charlotte, and you have this track, "Pleasure and Pain", "Bittersweet Memories" (sans the Metalcore), "Dignity", and "Pretty On the Outside". The song "Begging for Mercy" winds up being the only track on the latter half of the album is actually not bad. The iTunes Edition of this album only comes with "The Last Fight (Acoustic)" as a bonus track, but it's the only song on here that seems to have everything together. This song is actually not technically an acoustic track like it states, but more of a slightly orchestral ballad utilizing a piano and violins over unplugged or acoustic guitars/instruments. While the Japanese version of the album received this song, as well as three others, this track is very well composed and performed, working well with the more childish vocals used by the band's singer, but in no way to they reach the irritatingly higher pitch that many of the songs on this release are at. Yes, they are a little lower and softer, which only furthers the point of this album being better if the vocalist sang like he had hit puberty, making this song actually worth tracking down. One of the biggest shockers on Fever is something you will dismiss from the start. Earlier in the release you will hear something you think is absolutely impossible. You will hear a very, very short gutteral performance of only one or two words in a whole song. This absolutely random moment in the band's music is enough to make anyone become absolutely furious if it doesn't get dismissed as just a random MP3 clip of a good band in the background somewhere. However, you will hear this happen again in "Begging For Mercy", which just further acts a kick to the genitals. Why does this vocalist have to use such a higher whiny vocal style when he is actually able to scream, which is showcased well during the song "Breaking Out, Breaking Down", but can pull off such deep gutteral vocals? Either way, it's nice to know this guy can do that, but this slight "talent" showcase appears randomly and so briefly that it's just ridiculous. Once again, Bullet For My Valentine have issued another rather poor album, with the only value really stemming fromt he iTunes preorder incentive for the digital download version of the album. Fever starts off with some hope, but then dramatically goes downhill to the lamest, most generic offering the band has mustered together yet. If you can't tell, this album is easily one to skip over, as you really aren't missing much, and you could just tune to your local mainstream Rock radio station to hear a better composition then three fourth's of the material found on this album. |
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