ALBUM REVIEW; TEMPER TEMPER by Bullet For My Valentine

Bullet For My Valentine
Temper Temper
2/10

Disappointingly generic, uninspired and frankly dull in places, Bullet's 4th LP falls completely flat. 

Way back when, when BFMV were relative newbies, in the era traversing first two albums The Poison and Scream, Aim, Fire, they were hailed as the future of British metal. And this expectation was not unreasonable, with tracks like Tears Don't Fall, that to this day endures as a brilliant embodiment of emotive metal, Scream, Aim, Fire and Waking The Demon. Yet 3rd album Fever made no impression on me after a few listens, and therefore many hopes were held for album #4. Oh, how those hopes have been dashed. Sorry chaps, it's awful. Once the future of British metal, they're now almost a parody of the genre.

The word 'uninspired' works as a theme for this album, for veins of un-inspiration run throughout it. Before the opening bars of track 1 start, a quizzical and skeptical eyebrow must be raised at the track names. I have to wonder if there's an 'Angsty Pre-Teen Metalhead Song Name Handbook' - if such a thing existed, it would explain such heard-it-all-before titles such as Truth Hurts, Dead To The World, Dirty Little Secret and Livin' Life (On The Edge Of A Knife) (and yes, that's Livin', not Living). 

It doesn't get much better on the lyrical front lines either. I physically facepalmed during the first line of Leech, at the sentence "Hey, leech! No longer will you suck my blood", then again during Dead To The World at "hope is now lost; lost without hope". Just 2 examples of the frustratingly obvious 'lyricism' present in Temper Temper. And another irritating recurrence is Matt Tuck's constant re-use of the same lines within songs. I'm not saying repeating is a bad thing, otherwise I'd like 0% of music, but here it feels like filler because they couldn't be arsed to think of a different rhyme. Oh, and stop repeating the song title followed by "whooah-ohhhh-whoaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh". Once again, over-done. Done to death. The album's lowlight Riot combines these factors, and is in fact a microcosm of why the album is so bad. The chorus is "RIOT! Whoah-ohhh-oohhhhh". That's it. Then there are lines like "here come the sirens, here comes the law; run from the sirens, run from the law", of course punctuated by some whoah-ing. 

The other side of Riot, completing the microcosm, is the musical side of it. Underlined by a boring repetitive open-C chug with some infrequent twiddling, all of which is loyally followed by sheep-like drum/bass lines that do nothing more than replicate the basic rhythms. Which is a pattern across the whole album. There are one or two attempts to do something new, most notably from the ever-so-slightly djent-influenced Truth Hurts, yet even that fails by being too off-beat for it's own good and becoming simply clumsy. The only other bit that remains for me to pick up on is the physical vocals. Unfortunately, they are also awful. There's a pretty even 3-way mix of vocal stylings; screams, singing, and weird semi-talky stuff. The screams, to their credit, are ok, but they've been far superior; the singing is dire through being off-key and weak; and the weird semi-talky stuff tries to be moody but...it's just weird semi-talky stuff at the end of the day. And I actually laughed during Truth Hurts at Matt Tuck's attempt at a falsetto. Was someone squeezing his vegetables in the studio?

The only redeeming qualities in Temper Temper are the solos. Guitarist Padge is the only source of interesting material in the album, yet it almost seems that his 4-5 solos are a desperate attempt to keep a bit of real metal in what is otherwise a mass-produced instant-ready-meal of a metal record. And recycling Tears Don't Fall is the final nail in this album's coffin. There is a staggering lack of imagination present here, and I have to ask; Have you forgotten what metal is, Bullet? Because this ain't it. You seriously need to spend some time revisiting your roots.

LISTEN TO YOUR DEMISE'S COLD CHILLIN' EP

The title acts both as a statement as to something you can do, and an instruction. Nay, a demand.  PRESS PLAY and thank me later.

REASONS WHY QOTSA'S NEW ALBUM IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLE

The above is the second cryptic message posted by Queens Of The Stone Age in rock press - this one in Uncut, the first in Mojo. But it got me thinking about the new album, and how several factors are going to make it magnificent. 

• Guests; there's a whole host of frankly awesome talent appearing on the album:
• Dave Grohl is handling drum duty.
• Former bassist Nick Oliveri is lending vocals.
• Long-time guest vocalist Mark Lanegan is also contributing.
• Nine-Inch-Nails mastermind Trent Reznor will be on the record.
• And finally, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters is singing too.
• Don't forget that the first three were all part of Songs For The Deaf, which I still hold to be one of the greatest rock albums of at least the 21st Century (or perhaps ever). 
• This quote; "Doing the rehearsals for the first record is really defining the new one. It's been turning the new record into something else. What we were doing was kind of bluesy, and now it's turned into this trancey, broken thing. The robots are back!"
• Basically saying that they're in a mindset similar to the debut, which was superb. That + natural band development = fuck yeah. I mean, they haven't made a bad album, really. Era Vulgaris was probably the least amazing, but that's oxymoronic.
• They still fucking rock, even outside QOTSA. Take Them Crooked Vultures, uniting Josh Homme and Grohl. Trent Reznor's been on-song with How To Destroy Angels and his work on the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack, and Mark Lanegan is always good. It's also impossible not to like Scissor Sisters on some level.
• I'll admit I was surprised to see Nick Oliveri in the equation, what with his problems with the law. Musically it's good to see him there, though morally I'm not sure. 

Basically, this album is going to kick arse. If it's not this year's best album then I shall consume fashionable headwear until the cows come home. At the very least, I'm most excited about this album over any other coming out this year. 

WELL PLAYED, READING & LEEDS FESTIVAL

Is it just me, or is there some serious one-up-manship going on in the festival scene this year? I mean, more than usual. 

Reading/Leeds Festival yesterday made a very impressive announcement, containing the following bands;

• Biffy Clyro
• Fall Out Boy
• System Of A Down
• Bring Me The Horizon

Alongside Deftones and headliner Eminem (always quality), this is making for a very, very good bill. Getting FOB is pretty huge, BMTH should be awesome with their new album out soon, SOAD is well, SOAD and Biffy...well, this is going to be their year. 

Your move, Download. Which one of you will take my money?

ALBUM REVIEW; OPPOSITES by Biffy Clyro

Biffy Clyro
Opposites
9/10

Mon the Biff! A magnificent collection of distinctive stadium rock anthems. 

The first thing that's worth mentioning is that this album took the number 1 spot in the UK Album Chart for it's first week (week ending February 3rd), and is also the fastest-selling album this year so far. And boy does it more than deserve that. Opposites, the 6th studio effort by the Scots trio, is lyrically intricate, rocky, tender, beautiful, downright odd and overall, glorious. n.b. Biffy released 2 versions of the album, a 14-track single album, and a 20-track double album (the full version) - this review covers the double.

Over time, Biffy have been developing the kind of sound that suits festival headline spots and stadiums down to a T, and Opposites is very much the pinnacle of this progression. There are some truly huge anthems to be had across both discs, such as single Black Chandelier, Biblical and Stingin' Belle, that are custom-made to get huge crowds deafeningly chanting the choruses or jumping within the first 3 notes of a riff. The latter of those 3 is particularly rousing, breaking into a ludicrously uplifting score of what else but bagpipes at its close. As if you ever wondered where they were from. But the use of bagpipes only breaks the surface of how far Biffy push their own boundaries in terms of sound.

Never ones to be pigeonholed, there is such a huge variety of alternative styles within Opposites, one of the things that sets Biffy apart. The Fog, for example, employs a spooky, almost baroque organ sound with electronic undertones, with a stunning dark crescendo at the end that will send shivers down you; Sounds Like Balloons, underlined by a quirky, stuttering riff, sees harps creep in; and one of the highlights of both albums, Spanish Radio, actually uses a mariachi band in conjunction with the guitars and drums. Mad and brilliant. 

The Sand At The Core Of Our Bones (disc 1) and The Land At The End Of Our Toes (disc 2) are very different in style; The Sand... takes on a much darker, more menacing tone than the uplifting sense behind The Land... - indeed, it's where the name Opposites comes from, with each disc acting as the antithesis of the other. But, together, it's brilliant. Rather than feeling too long, it's perfectly balanced, and at its' core, it's pure Biffy - off-beat riffs, oft-nonsensical yet beautifully flowing and clever lyricism, and personally deep to each band member but with a grand sound that brings them to the high point they were destined for. An amazing record. 

RANDY BLYTHE - A MESSAGE OF SUPPORT

From all of us here at theNOISE (Ah, such laughs. It's just me), I would like to wish Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe the best - he stands in Czech court facing a charge of manslaughter, and I can only hope that he is found innocent. We, being the rock and metal community, are behind you all the way. 

For better live updates, try following Metal Hammer's coverage of the case here.

FALL OUT BOY ARE REALLY BACK THIS TIME

This. Is. Happening. 

They're fucking back. In a statement on www.falloutboyrock.com, they said "when we were kids the only thing that got us through most days was music. its why we started fall out boy in the first place. this isn't a reunion because we never broke up. we needed to plug back in and make some music that matters to us. the future of fall out boy starts now. save rock and roll..."

This comes with the ludicrously exciting news of a new album! It's called Save Rock And Roll and it will be available worldwide on May 6/7. They're doing a US tour in support of this, the dates of which are also on www.falloutboyrock.com, which means a UK/Europe tour should follow, although there are 3 Euro dates at the end of this month, in London, Paris and Berlin. 

I am so excited right about now.

And, to put the icing on the cake of this great news, here's a new single too. It's called My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up). Ah, how I've missed the long titles.

We survived, guys. We survived the hiatus.