The Singles Jukebox

And featuring a brand new frontman!

[Video][Website]
[4.62]

Thomas Inskeep: Screamo lives! Or metalcore, or whatever you want to call it. I love the sincere-sounding high drama of the music (and chorus vocals) here, and I’m a sucker for triple-time drums. I’d prefer a vocal technique other than what I call the “Satan vomiting” effect, which plagues the verses, but I can get past that.  
[7]

Patrick St. Michel: I wish this would replace the dramatic, string-swelling parts with more screaming, honestly.
[4]

Cassy Gress: 23-year-old me really liked “Wait” by Earshot, and I still sort of do. 23-year-old me would probably like this too, for the pre-chorus and chorus parts — not so much the unintelligible screaming verses. Unfortunately, 32-year-old me is reviewing this, and I am aware there are ways to scream that make the vowels still discernible, and not “FAAANAAASHMAAAAA”. I swear the chorus sounds like “Oh god I wish you’d just BEEP BEEPBEEPBEEP BEEPBEEPBEEP TO ME, WORK WOR-WOR-WOR-WORK IS ALL THAT I SEE, SPANK PANPANPAN PAN PAN PAN PANK TO ME”. I like hard rock songs with dramatic singing/chord progressions in them — I like a lot of SoaD! SING BETTER. Also, the bass drum is all tamped down like Lars Ulrich’s and that tapping sound is really sticking out to me.
[4]

Iain Mew: Two songs in one, which is cool, especially once it becomes clear that the sad velvety one has seeped back into the fireworks display one.
[6]

Jonathan Bradley: When “The Black” gets emo, it gets interesting: a moody piano bridge interrupts Asking Alexandria’s caterwaul and Denis Stoff wails about needing to “cut you out” as if he had Chester Bennington dreams. Unfortunately, the interlude lasts a bit too long, building to faux-symphonic heights: what seemed like a respite turns out to be a new direction. We’re here for the Cookie Monster screams and power tool guitars; don’t mess with the formula, guys.
[4]

Brad Shoup: With its tremulous vocals, string accompaniment, and light-handed piano, the bridge — well, I thought it was the bridge, but it runs right through the end — puts everything into focus. It’s Chestercore: offering just enough thrash until the pop chorus. And it’s a decent chorus, too: yelpy melodicism fanned out and pasted to the background. Shame about the cutting: the stutter adds self-consciousness.
[5]

Jonathan Bogart: I bet there are Tumblr teens all over the place carving these lyrics into any surface they can find, heads buzzing with the total-body throb of undifferentiated emotion, which is why I can’t bring myself to loathe it as much as a single listen and an ongoing headache wants me to. Screaming means less than nothing to me, but sensitive caterwauling over strings is a time-honored pop move. You do you, Tumblr teens.
[5]

Micha Cavaseno: Years drag on, and metalcore continues to go on, despite having lost any sense of idea where to forward from here. Like, these glitchy jump-cuts on the vocals would be a brilliant idea, if they had any further use than just to enhance such a super generic chorus. But listen to what my man is singing, “You make me feel like I am fucking drowning”? This band has been around for quite some time, and the days where you could have those sub-Chimaira angst vibes were ages ago. The downtuned riffing is just percussive enough to work in establishing its weight, but does nothing to validate its existence. Its a real killer that the years have gone by and not one band from this scene who had a desire to enhance their skillset seemed to maintain an edge over the guys who just want to milk the carcass of a long-weathered cow. I’m not asking for Botch, but christ, even Norma Jean would do at this point.
[2]