Band:	Bullet For My Valentine
Album:	Scream Aim Fire
Style:	Melodic metalcore
Release date:	January 2008

Disc I
01. Scream Aim Fire
02. Eye Of The Storm
03. Hearts Burst Into Fire
04. Waking The Demon
05. Disappear
06. Deliver Us From Evil
07. Take It Out On Me [Feat. Benji Webbe]
08. Say Goodnight
09. End Of Days
10. Last To Know
11. Forever And Always
12. Road To Nowhere [deluxe edition bonus]
13. Watching Us Die Tonight [deluxe edition bonus]
14. One Good Reason Why [deluxe edition bonus]
15. Ashes Of The Innocent [deluxe edition, iTunes bonus]
16. No Easy Way Out (No Love) [Robert Tepper cover] [Japanese bonus]
17. Creeping Death [Metallica cover] [iTunes bonus]

Disc II [deluxe edition dvd]
[Music Videos]
01. Scream Aim Fire
02. Waking The Demon
03. Heart Burst Into Fire

[Bullet TV videos]
04. Drinking
05. Switzerland
06. Japan
07. Travel To Oz
08. Australia/New Zealand

Balls. This is something most people claim is lacking in the metalcore genre, especially when considering the new and popular bands. Well ladies and gentlemen, this album has balls, and tons of it.

From the moment the first track kicks in it's clear that these Welsh dudes are more than capable of delivering solid, heavy, fresh and technical music that is catchy and likeable at the same time. Yes, the mainstream influences are there but the emotion never takes a backseat in favor of catchiness just for the sake of it. The combo of tracks 3 and 4 is the best way to describe this whole album: a catchy pop rock tune that goes straight into an energetic song with heavy guitars. During the course of these two songs the dudes show their diverse influences from Queensrÿche to Metallica to In Flames, all done with taste and a conviction rarely seen in this genre. Originality does take a backseat as the main difference between this and other metalcore bands is that, while this album follows mostly the same formulas, they actually manage to create some quality music, which in my eyes more than makes up for the formulaic approach.

Instrumentally, this album is more than impressive. Guitars are melodic, no, they're very modern and riff-oriented, no, they're melodic again. Well, one thing's for sure, they keep the songs fresh and surprising. This is not to detract from the great drumming performance, and even the little bass solos here and there. Now the vocals, that's a different story. Matt Tuck had to shake off a case of laryngitis before recording this album, and it seems that his voice has lost some of its power in this process. As with most metalcore bands, there are clean and harsh vocals, and the latter ones are pretty good.

As you may have noticed, the keyword I want to use for this album is "Fresh", as this is precisely the type of music to which you could get off your lazy ass and headbang, dance, sing or play air guitar. Few bands manage to pull this off and Bullet For My Valentine is one of them.