Attack Attack! (US) - This Means War
After losing their vocalist/founder of the band after their debut album, following it up with their now ex-synth player on screams immediately took a heavier direction due to the nature of his voice and the lack of creative input from Austin, their old screamer. After their second album release they then lost their lead guitar player who was responsible for most of their signature half-auto tuned high pitched clean vocals. Their third full length release 'This Means War' heads further away from the original vision for Attack Attack! but in a good way.
This album treads very very close to the border with their friendly neighbor 'Deathcore'
The move to 7 string guitars is immediately present from track one and sticks through the whole cd. This album is like a breakdown minefield interbreeding with melodic chorus's sung by Caleb himself. This dude's been taking some singing lessons! who needs their old guitar player..? clearly not these guys.
So the vocals have improved a ton. They have put a lot more thought into the production of them in both the singing and screaming. They ditched the autotune, only put in synth where it was appropriate, and made it dirty as all hell so it really stands out in a good way. The biggest gripe i have with the new album is the instrumentals..and that is what kills it for me. The instrumental tracks alone have no traction against anything else in the genre they're so closely dancing with. They are extremely boring. They need to learn how to play those shiny new 7 strings before they even DARE call themselves deathcore, which more than likely will end up happening at this rate.
Final word? personally..i'm probably not going to purchase it. The instrumentals kill what would otherwise be their best album to date. They blend most songs together and doesn't hold your interest much.
forces me to give this album a
6/10
better luck next time boys
