I'm one of the people who hates Asking Alexandria (and similar bands) with a passion, and have been very vocal about it, but I'm surprised at how much I'm actually looking forward to this. Reminds me of a mixture of newer The Devil Wears Prada and early Bring Me The Horizon. Unsurprisingly if you don't like either band then you won't like this, but for those, this is shaping up to be pretty solid. Generic, but solid. It's a mainstream metalcore album, after all.



No more trancecore, super autotuned cleans, or dadrock worship at least.

Now that it's out:

It's... weird. They're really trying to branch out and try different things, but what always gets in the way is the fact that they're Asking Alexandria. They have a lot of really chilling dark atmospheric moments and then suddenly Asking Alexandria guitars kick in. The tone is great, but they're constantly playing the same riff styles over and over again. The clean-only songs were a nice change of pace but I found myself wanting more of the aggressive songs. Songs like "Sometimes It Ends", "Undivided", and "Circled By The Wolves" represent what the band knows best, fun 2008 metalcore. Hell, even "Just A Slave To Rock n' Roll" is pretty fun, as much of an abomination it is. But the album feels super all over the place, and has a lot of lackluster songs. Those songs would be fine if they were more focused or more interesting.

However, what I can say is WOW Denis is a fantastic vocalist, definitely among the best in metalcore. His cleans are what your metalcore vocalists want to sound like but can't so they autotune it to hell and make it sound awful. Yes, there is a bit of autotune here, but remember that it can't drastically change someone's voice without sounding horrible. His harsh vocals remind me a lot of Fronz from Attila. Attila is a pretty shit band (well, Rage and Outlawed weren't too bad for their "party deathcore" niche), but it can't be denied that Fronz is one hell of a vocalist. Denis straight-up carried this album. With Danny this would have been another forgettable release, but due to him this is by far the best AA album. And this is coming from someone who hated the band with a passion.

I don't know. I'm struggling between giving this a 6 or 7. I enjoy it enough, but it's not a particularly good album. At best it's decent. If the band chooses one of the two obvious paths for them in the next album then it'll be far better. They can either become a really solid 2008 metalcore band or an interesting moody alt rock band (you know, what Bring Me The Horizon tried to do recently and failed miserably at). At the very least it's not bad, just at worst lacking. Well, that Rock n' Roll song was horrendous, but that's beside the point.

Written by Tony Teh Towel on 25.03.2016 at 06:31

New singer is like a chihuaha trying to fill a pitbulls shoes

Its a bit too light for me, too much soft parts, its annoying

& I honestly love their earlier work, oh well

And still gave it a 10.

^Had a nice bit of cognitive dissonance there over the comments and score until I recognised who was posting

Written by Tony Teh Towel on 29.03.2016 at 19:41


I give them 10s because I feel everyone else is too hard on them

So vote abuse then. i.e. you think your score should carry more weight than anyone else's.

Didn't really like the whole thing (it sure is catchy in some moments), but Lost Souls is an instant hit. Pity it's so alone there.