Bullet for my Valentine -Fever

Thu 17th Jun, 2010 in Music Reviews

Ask any music fan about their opinion of Bullet For My Valentine and you’re likely to get one of two responses. Either you’ll get an obsessed fan who wants to scream at the top of their lungs and yell ‘Matt Tuck is a musical genius, Bullet are one of the greatest bands ever!’ The second sits on the other side of the proverbial fence and says ‘If I ever see Matt Tuck I will stab him in the face and set his corpse on fire’.

Bullet For My Valentine tend to be a love or hate band and the new album Fever has been the subject of much debate amongst the world of music.

After playing just about every major music festival in the world and with two gold records under their belt Bullet For My Valentine are more experienced than ever and have certainly come a long way since the days of the horrendous Bullet For My Valentine forerunner band Jeff Killed John.

When addressing Fever the question that has to be asked is if it has been in the right direction. Has Bullet For My Valentine actually progressed? The band’s second album Scream Aim Fire was a fast paced, brutal and well executed record which received much critical acclaim. In many ways it feels as if Fever fails to meet the standard of its previous record as well as the anticipation of fans.

One thing that becomes evident from the outset is that this is their most mainstream record yet. The opening track Your Betrayal is a strong opening track to the album with a very standard approach to a metalcore song featuring some fairly stock riffs and strong backbeats. No new ground is made and as with most of the following tracks it follows a very standard basic structure. Most tracks tend to be quite short and their format could easily be compared with any pop song on the radio.

Matt Tuck has stated that they made the record that they wanted to make and “didn’t listen to anyone’s opinions” but it doesn’t seem as if that attitude has produced a better record. Whilst this album is certainly far from the worst work of a metal band, it often drags and gets quite repetitive.

To Tuck’s credit his vocal performance and writing seems to be one of the few elements of the band that has really improved. The track Fever may feature some rather juvenile lyrics but the melodies are exceptionally well written. His vocal competency becomes most prominent on the track Pretty on the Outside, with both well executed screaming and a catchy chorus which really hits the right note, so to speak.

The real frustration of this album comes from the moments of brilliance which do shine through in the album. With tracks like Alone and Pretty on the Outside Bullet demonstrate some exceptional song writing ability with some nice chunky riffs, excellent instrumentation, well written solo’s from guitarist Michael Paget and an excellent vocal performance from Tuck. However this progress is negated by tracks like Pleasure and Pain which whilst being a solid track, feels very average with no real groundbreaking material and fails to improve on the bands previous writing.

Ultimately Fever delivers a fairly solid record which does feel lacking at times but at others makes listening to the album feel really worthwhile. It is a nice addition to Bullet For My Valentine’s repertoire but certainly isn’t their best work.