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Bullet For My Valentine - Fever review
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Reviewer:
5.9

295 users:
6.8
Band: Bullet For My Valentine
Album: Fever
Style: Melodic metalcore
Release date: April 26, 2010
A review by: Doc G.


01. Your Betrayal
02. Fever
03. The Last Fight
04. A Place Where You Belong
05. Pleasure And Pain
06. Alone
07. Breaking Out Breaking Down
08. Bittersweet Memories
09. Dignity
10. Begging For Mercy
11. Pretty On The Outside
12. The Last Fight [acoustic version] [iTunes and Japanese bonus]
13. Road To Nowhere [Japanese bonus]
14. Watching Us Die Tonight [Japanese bonus]
15. One Good Reason Why [Japanese bonus]

Metalcore of this variety is something that sounds pretty decent in theory, but seems to only produce crap. Let's be honest with ourselves - bands like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold are to metal what McDonalds is to food; cheap, easily marketed, somewhat digestible, but completely flavourless and flat. Sadly, we can add Bullet For My Valentine to this list.

Why is it a disappointment that BFMV can and should now be discarded? Well, let's take a look at Scream Aim Fire; a number of quality rip-roaring modern metal tracks on there worth listening to, far from perfect, but promising. This made Fever the album where it was time to step up and prove themselves as being a worthy metal act. What did they do instead? Made an entire album of metalcore cliches no fully developed human being can stomach. Teen angst? Check. Unnecessary amounts of whining? Check. Butchering of a few Thin Lizzy or Iron Maiden riffs? Check. Not only is Fever completely wussified, ball-less, cliche teeny-bopper "nobody understands my pain" fluff, but it's unconvincing and shallow.

Ok, ok, taking pot-shots at Bullet For My Valentine is quite easy, granted; but they have only themselves to blame. There are actually a number of extremely promising moments on the album though. The title track has some pretty ballsy riffing and lyrical content about killing prostitutes, which I suppose is pretty bad ass. Aside from 'Fever' and maybe another track or two, they seem to destroy even their coolest riffs by turning every song into some pseudo-power ballad. One moment it's "Oh nice! Thrashy Iron Maiden!" then the next moment it's "Why am I reviewing a Fallout Boy album for MetalStorm?" In fact, I can almost picture the song writing process now:
"Hey guys, I've got a really good idea!"
"Awesome! I know just how we can fuck it up!"
"High five!"

Despite listening to Fever a number of times repeatedly (in order to write this review, you see), I still can't remember a good portion of the album. Either my brain is putting up some sort of immunity to this crap, or it just flat out sucks.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 5
Originality: 6
Production: 8





Written on 06.10.2010 by
Doc G.
Former EIC. Now just a reviewer guy.
More reviews by Doc G. ››


Comments page 2 / 2

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Comments: 50   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 495 users
07.10.2010 - 17:26
GT
Coffee!!
Staff
While I agree with many of the points in the review and the rating, I also somehow kinda like the album. Notice the "kinda" 'cause yeah it's not a good album, but still it have it's moments at least for me.

Anywho I wouldn't spend money on it that's for sure
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Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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07.10.2010 - 21:45
Boxcar Willy
yr a kook
Written by [user id=108163] on 06.10.2010 at 15:41

Written by Carl Berg on 06.10.2010 at 11:50

Quote:
bands like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold are to metal what McDonalds is to food; cheap, easily marketed, somewhat digestible, but completely flavourless and flat

Couldn't have said it better.

+1

+2
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14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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09.10.2010 - 00:06
Valentin B
Iconoclast
Quote:
Well, let's take a look at Scream Aim Fire; a number of quality rip-roaring modern metal tracks on there worth listening to, far from perfect, but promising

finally some love for BFMV's second album, this is something really hard to find on metalstorm, at times i feel like i'm the only person who listened to that album before having an opinion about it.


as for this one, i heard the songs which were released beforehand and i was pretty bored, they felt way too uninspired, boring and generic. i guess i won't be bothering with this release. or i might, but i don't have huge expectations.
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10.10.2010 - 02:28
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Staff
Played a lot of NHL 11 recently and listened to Your Betrayal a lot. Decent intro, lame lyrical content, bitch-boy vocals... Wouldn't listen to the rest of the album even if someone paid me.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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10.10.2010 - 13:41
matos
Written by [user id=108163] on 06.10.2010 at 15:41

Written by Carl Berg on 06.10.2010 at 11:50

Quote:
bands like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold are to metal what McDonalds is to food; cheap, easily marketed, somewhat digestible, but completely flavourless and flat

Couldn't have said it better.

+1

this sentence makes me want to suggest the integration of "Like" button from facebook to metalstorm.

[like]

i know there actually is a like button, but i meant some sort of MS version of it for the people without FB (like myself)
eh, never mind, just a hangover talking
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11.10.2010 - 13:20
Rating: 8
Cyroth
Written by Valentin B on 09.10.2010 at 00:06

Quote:
Well, let's take a look at Scream Aim Fire; a number of quality rip-roaring modern metal tracks on there worth listening to, far from perfect, but promising

finally some love for BFMV's second album, this is something really hard to find on metalstorm, at times i feel like i'm the only person who listened to that album before having an opinion about it.

Scream Aim Fire is my favorite album from them ,so you're not alone.
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11.10.2010 - 19:30
Rating: 8
Woopy77
I listened to this and it was alright, extremely mainstream which i had predicted. this band is kind of dead to me anymore and once you find other more talented music you realize how generic they are.
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13.10.2010 - 03:26
ChibiDemigod
Hell yeah this album begins good but only 10 seconds the rest is only monotony
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13.10.2010 - 21:35
Rating: 4
hadriel
Awful album, great review.

I started listening to BFMV and other generic metalcore bands to get into metal (unfortunately). There's actually a few tracks that I enjoy by this band off of their first 2 albums. Listened to the first few songs off of this one and just skimmed over the rest and it's far more generic and "mainstream"-sounding than their earlier releases even. Terrible. I'd argue that the originality and songwriting categories warrant even lower ratings. 5.9 overall still seems a bit too high.
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29.10.2010 - 17:48
deathstar180
Written by Doc G. on 07.10.2010 at 04:37

Written by JCJen7 on 07.10.2010 at 04:33

Sooo much hate for Avenged Sevenfold on this website, its obnoxious. They haven't made a metalcore album in coming up on 8 years now, and have released 4 non-metalcore albums since then (as opposed to only two metalcore albums overrall). Whatever, it just gets annoying, not everyone who reads these reviews hates Avenged Sevenfold, and I am getting fed up with all the useless shots you take at them in almost any review.

Yeah, not everyone who reads these reviews dislikes this album either, what can you do?

I've written 97 reviews. This is the first one I've mentioned A7X to the best of my recollection.

A7X make it incredibly easy to shit on them. Their fault, not mine.

Sorry we've offended you.

No, they don't make it easy, they play music that a vast number of people really do like. And it seems that everyone here is trying to make people think that they are cooler simply because they can talk trash about someones music and by saying "Well this band is cooler than this band" but my favorite bands are BFMV and Avenged Sevenfold as well as Slipknot. Just because you trash Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine does not make you cool. So you have different tastes in music, good for you, but that makes you look weak, wimpy, and pathetic when you feel like you have to trash someone's music. Have you ever formed a band and written music, performed and gained thousands, maybe millions of fans? I think not. It isn't easy. If anything you should respect the hard work that goes into each bands album. And if you don't like it, don't listen to it. It is as simple as that. And when you review you can say it isn't the best you've heard, because noone wants you to be dishonest, but at the same time you don't have to attack them. And yes, The Poison album was a lot better than Fever but every band has their down albums or albums that even the fans like better than the others.
----
Paula Lanell Singleton
AKA
Metalhead
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29.10.2010 - 23:38
Doc G.
Full Grown Hoser
Staff
Written by deathstar180 on 29.10.2010 at 17:48

No, they don't make it easy, they play music that a vast number of people really do like. And it seems that everyone here is trying to make people think that they are cooler simply because they can talk trash about someones music and by saying "Well this band is cooler than this band" but my favorite bands are BFMV and Avenged Sevenfold as well as Slipknot. Just because you trash Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine does not make you cool. So you have different tastes in music, good for you, but that makes you look weak, wimpy, and pathetic when you feel like you have to trash someone's music. Have you ever formed a band and written music, performed and gained thousands, maybe millions of fans? I think not. It isn't easy. If anything you should respect the hard work that goes into each bands album. And if you don't like it, don't listen to it. It is as simple as that. And when you review you can say it isn't the best you've heard, because noone wants you to be dishonest, but at the same time you don't have to attack them. And yes, The Poison album was a lot better than Fever but every band has their down albums or albums that even the fans like better than the others.

I don't trash bands to look cool, I trash bands because it's funny, and by the looks of it, it worked, as you seem to be in the minority of people who didn't get a laugh.

Record labels send us stuff to review, so in a way, people are asking me to trash their music. Regarding the whole "do what they do then bash them" thing doesn't really work when they write generic, easily marketable, fluffy trash that so many other people have already done.

As far as being cool, it isn't the trashing of these albums that makes me cool, it's just a side-effect.

Also, I'm kind of confused as to how expressing my opinions in a creative manner is showing me as weak and pathetic? You're right, I'm secretly a BFMV fan and just wanted to look cool.

I just calls 'em like I sees 'em. I'm a whale biologist.
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"I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck."
- George Carlin
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01.11.2010 - 14:00
deathstar180
Written by Doc G. on 29.10.2010 at 23:38

Written by deathstar180 on 29.10.2010 at 17:48

No, they don't make it easy, they play music that a vast number of people really do like. And it seems that everyone here is trying to make people think that they are cooler simply because they can talk trash about someones music and by saying "Well this band is cooler than this band" but my favorite bands are BFMV and Avenged Sevenfold as well as Slipknot. Just because you trash Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine does not make you cool. So you have different tastes in music, good for you, but that makes you look weak, wimpy, and pathetic when you feel like you have to trash someone's music. Have you ever formed a band and written music, performed and gained thousands, maybe millions of fans? I think not. It isn't easy. If anything you should respect the hard work that goes into each bands album. And if you don't like it, don't listen to it. It is as simple as that. And when you review you can say it isn't the best you've heard, because noone wants you to be dishonest, but at the same time you don't have to attack them. And yes, The Poison album was a lot better than Fever but every band has their down albums or albums that even the fans like better than the others.

I don't trash bands to look cool, I trash bands because it's funny, and by the looks of it, it worked, as you seem to be in the minority of people who didn't get a laugh.

Record labels send us stuff to review, so in a way, people are asking me to trash their music. Regarding the whole "do what they do then bash them" thing doesn't really work when they write generic, easily marketable, fluffy trash that so many other people have already done.

As far as being cool, it isn't the trashing of these albums that makes me cool, it's just a side-effect.

Also, I'm kind of confused as to how expressing my opinions in a creative manner is showing me as weak and pathetic? You're right, I'm secretly a BFMV fan and just wanted to look cool.

I just calls 'em like I sees 'em. I'm a whale biologist.

It would seem you didn't read my whole post. You can express your opinions in a way that doesn't sound so harsh. I mean, think of all the effort put into each CD. That is a lot no matter how generic or fluffy the music is. At least you can respect that, the hard work. Sure, Fever is a pretty bad album, but at least they worked hard on it, and not all Bullet For My Valentine is bad. I love The Poison album. See what I mean?
----
Paula Lanell Singleton
AKA
Metalhead
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01.11.2010 - 21:08
Doc G.
Full Grown Hoser
Staff
Written by deathstar180 on 01.11.2010 at 14:00

It would seem you didn't read my whole post. You can express your opinions in a way that doesn't sound so harsh. I mean, think of all the effort put into each CD. That is a lot no matter how generic or fluffy the music is. At least you can respect that, the hard work. Sure, Fever is a pretty bad album, but at least they worked hard on it, and not all Bullet For My Valentine is bad. I love The Poison album. See what I mean?

So basically you are asking me to tone down my reviews in case someone might get offended? No thanks, Tipper.
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"I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck."
- George Carlin
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01.11.2010 - 21:28
Rating: 5
Fat & Sassy!
Elite
Written by Doc G. on 29.10.2010 at 23:38

As far as being cool, it isn't the trashing of these albums that makes me cool, it's just a side-effect.

WIN xD
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02.11.2010 - 08:04
BitterCOld
The Ancient One
Admin
Written by deathstar180 on 01.11.2010 at 14:00

It would seem you didn't read my whole post. You can express your opinions in a way that doesn't sound so harsh. I mean, think of all the effort put into each CD. That is a lot no matter how generic or fluffy the music is. At least you can respect that, the hard work. Sure, Fever is a pretty bad album, but at least they worked hard on it, and not all Bullet For My Valentine is bad. I love The Poison album. See what I mean?

i did read your original post. i had similar shots taken at me for a review i did of another band that produces radio-friendly rock/metal anthems to teenage angsties who want to seem edgy or dangerous, which is partially why i am chiming in now .

i don't care how much time and effort goes into recording something. if it sucks, it sucks. two simple solutions for bands who don't want to run the risk of people saying negative things about their work:

A: don't release anything. you can't please all the people all of the time. there are people on this site who don't like the new Enslaved... so what chance does any other band have of making everyone happy? beware! feelings might be hurt! best not to try.

or

B: create songs that don't suck. if poor bastards recording on four tracks under the tightest of deadlines and conditions can make some amazing music paid for out of their own pockets (i've received several of these such albums to review), surely a band with months in the studio and an endless supply of record label cash and gear from sponsors can as well.

so back to the review. the music world is full of boring people who write boring reviews for boring music. at least with Doc you know where the album stands in no uncertain terms. sure, your opinion might differ from his or mine, (and what a boring world it would be if we all shared Doc's tastes. at least after the first month or so it might get lame once all the debauchery gets old and the hangovers get worse), but everyone has a right to hold their own opinion. i prefer honesty to carefully phrased bullshit that obfuscates someones impressions of an album for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

but i guess we should expect more and more of these "be nice because they put a lot of time, effort, and money into a sucky record" posts, as we now live in the age where everyone gets a trophy just for showing up.
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get the fuck off my lawn.

Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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24.11.2010 - 12:11
Rating: 8
Cyroth
Lot of effort waisted .They really should do something more heavy for fucking sake :|.As much as their music appeals to me I'm starting to get disappointed that they just don't give their best.
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24.11.2010 - 12:38
Angelic Storm
Melodious
I havent heard much from this band, to be honest. But the small amount I have heard hasnt filled me with any great desire to hear anymore. *shrugs* Im not going to jump on the "lets all bash metalcore" bandwagon, as there is a small amount of stuff classed as that which I do like. (IE: some Shadows Fall) But overall, it is a genre that doesnt do much for me....
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19.01.2011 - 11:48
Sword_Chant
I used to listen to BFMV every now and then- mostly the Poison. I felt that 'Scream Aim Fire' tried too hard to make lyrics that appeal to a much wider audience. These bands all give the same kind of commercialised feel; nothing wrong with that however - because all bands want success.

That's off-putting, however. I think thats what most users here on MS feel... since most people here appreciate the underground music scene alot, since it isn't afraid to try newer things out and take risks with the music - the differentiation and things we hear a little less. The commercial sound can seem like controlled simplicity or recycled/repetitive if it feels that one step of being TOO inspired. The clapping sounds, chanting, label controlled lyrics about coping with life with certain effects that have vast popularity to the modern era today. This is why all those bands like Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Evanescence, just get ripped to shreds on these websites. It's not the fact the music isn't likeable, because their fanbase proves that. It's about the context and setting it's placed into.


Written by Crazy Booduh on 06.10.2010 at 17:30

I'll agree about BFMV and Avenged Sevenfold, but I actually thought Trivium's last album was pretty killer.

I agree - for me Trivium is the only commercial metal band I can stand.
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02.08.2012 - 20:30
(o> . <o> )
Nice review, I have to agree with this
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definitely the only valid black metal list
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10.01.2021 - 22:43
quieted_darkness
I think McDonalds can actually be pretty good. Avenged Sevenfold and Trivium are complete trash though. So I attribute them closer with Pizza Hut which to me is the nastiest pizza I've ever had and probably will never eat again. Though it's been years since I've listened to it, I do have a soft spot for A7X's Sounding the Seventh Trumpet.
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