As it is with the music industry in general, the state of heavy metal is in a weird place. Ever since Zeppelin, Sabbath and Deep Purple gave life to this unique brand of rock some 40-plus years ago, the genre has had its ups and downs in terms of musical growth and reputation, but with the ever-expanding family tree of metal continuously spawning new sub-categories, there seems to now be an overwhelming sense of creative stagnation. Of course, any metal enthusiast will probably try to fight you, if you some how imply that there isn’t a difference between thrash metal and nu metal––and of course, you would be wrong. But these differences among metal sub-genres don’t change the fact that all of them have contributed to the drying of the heavy metal well.

Enter Bullet For My Valentine. As the pride and joy of Wales, this metalcore/thrash metal quartet has managed to attain an impressive following, both at home and across the pond in the states. With the huge success of the band’s sophomore release Scream Aim Fire, Bullet For My Valentine is once again looking to establish themselves as the contenders of their particular genre of metal with their most recent effort, Fever.

And although they very well may still find themselves at the pinnacle of the metalcore/thrash metal scene after the reviews have come in, it won’t be because of anything new and original. The album starts off with “Your Betrayal,” which features a kinetic variation of a military drum roll that explodes into some heavily palm-muted guitar picking and technical hammer-ons and pull-offs. As energetic and fierce as this one-minute is, it still feels like a continuation of Scream Aim Fire. This sort of redundancy continues on “Begging For Mercy” with the screamed verses and sung choruses that sound exactly like half of their established catalog. And although vocalist and guitarist Matthew Tuck has acknowledged just how hard he worked on his vocals this time around––“The vocals took longer than everything else on the album put together. It was brutal work, but I personally thought I had a huge point to prove so that’s why I stuck at it”––unfortunately, the substance of the lyrics weren’t held to the same rigorous demands as the style of the vocals. The bridge on “Fever” is possibly the worst, sounding more like a really bad Lady Gaga song than anything a metal band would sing about: “Come here you naughty girl, you’re such a tease / You look so beautiful down on your knees.”

Fever is what you would come to expect not only from Bullet For My Valentine, but from contemporary metal in general: plenty of double kick-bass, a barrage of harmonic guitar riffs and a batch of head-banging tunes that get you pumped-up. Yes, there are distinct differences between metal sub-genres, but the overall trend seems to be who can play fastest and with the most distortion. Bullet For My Valentine is incredibly good at what they do, but this is the third album that they have done it. As impressive as their musical abilities are, they almost seem to be put to waste on Fever. It would seem that metal is in need of a revolution and if they are willing to expand, Bullet would be the perfect band to lead the charge.

Label: Jive – Rating: out of

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