If you listen closely to Bullet For My Valentine's Scream, Aim, Fire you can hear a few of their influences distilled into a strange brew. There's some Guns N Roses in there, maybe some Maiden and Priest too. However, to get to that you have to listen really, really closely. Uncomfortably close. Ear pressed to the subwoofer close. Otherwise you're just going to hear a band who does Avenged Sevenfold a little bit better than Avenged Sevenfold does, mercifully without the Hot Topic wardrobe and pseudonyms like "Synyster Gates" and "Zacky Vengeance."
The band's sophomore album is strikingly different from their 2005 debut The Poison. It's slicker and more polished than the last one, and even more so than their metal mates, Avenged Sevenfold, which is surprising because A7X is known for being a the prettiest sounding metal band around. It's sort of like that one guy you know who looks like he just rolled out of bed all the time, except you know that it took him two hours in front of the mirror to get his hair to the perfect state of mussed.
Lyricist and vocalist, Matt Tuck, bounces flawlessly between crisp metal screams and Cookie Monster growls. The ballads on the album show that he can sing if he wants to. When the band gets away from the cliche metal lyrics, they focus on that old sophomore album fall-back of the woes of touring with a successful musical act. Ballad "Hearts Burst Into Fire" and "Forever and Always," are standout tracks, but aren't in tune with the genre. Lyrics like "I'm coming home/I've been gone far too long/do you remember me at all?" are modern versions of 1980s hair ballads, recalling Heaven not being too far away over the dark edge they would surely prefer.
The band's sophomore album is strikingly different from their 2005 debut The Poison. It's slicker and more polished than the last one, and even more so than their metal mates, Avenged Sevenfold, which is surprising because A7X is known for being a the prettiest sounding metal band around. It's sort of like that one guy you know who looks like he just rolled out of bed all the time, except you know that it took him two hours in front of the mirror to get his hair to the perfect state of mussed.
Lyricist and vocalist, Matt Tuck, bounces flawlessly between crisp metal screams and Cookie Monster growls. The ballads on the album show that he can sing if he wants to. When the band gets away from the cliche metal lyrics, they focus on that old sophomore album fall-back of the woes of touring with a successful musical act. Ballad "Hearts Burst Into Fire" and "Forever and Always," are standout tracks, but aren't in tune with the genre. Lyrics like "I'm coming home/I've been gone far too long/do you remember me at all?" are modern versions of 1980s hair ballads, recalling Heaven not being too far away over the dark edge they would surely prefer.
