Written by Wes on 05.04.2013 at 03:07

The vocals drag the album down quite a few ratings for me. A lot of "yelling", rather than "death vocals". His death vocals are pretty good, but he seems to give up at a certain point and start yelling which simply makes him sound like he's imitating an angry person. I like the album, but probably no more than a 7 for me personally. I know a lot of people like Jesse's vocals, so not trying to say it's bad, just not for me. I do however really like a lot of the riffs, and vocal melodies on the choruses.

Written by psykometal on 05.04.2013 at 05:52

Written by Wes on 05.04.2013 at 03:07

The vocals drag the album down quite a few ratings for me. A lot of "yelling", rather than "death vocals". His death vocals are pretty good, but he seems to give up at a certain point and start yelling which simply makes him sound like he's imitating an angry person. I like the album, but probably no more than a 7 for me personally. I know a lot of people like Jesse's vocals, so not trying to say it's bad, just not for me. I do however really like a lot of the riffs, and vocal melodies on the choruses.

I never noticed what you're talking about him "giving up" but it is possible he may have intentionally given himself "breaks" and doing that may be explained by the reason he left the band the first time. He left originally because he never learned how to properly scream/growl so he was practically shredding his vocal chords every night on tours and when he finally went to a doctor they told him what was happening and if he didn't stop screaming/growling then he would eventually lose the ability to speak. That is why he dropped out of the band suddenly right before the start of a nationwide tour with Otep in 2002, and why the band he started some years later (Seemless) was a stoner metal band with no screaming/growling.

I assume he must've finally taken vocal lessons to learn how to scream/growl properly but he may still be worried about damaging his vocal chords, so he may have intentionally written less drastic scream/growl sections to give himself "breaks". I wouldn't be surprised if that's also why they added the "evil effects" (Idk what else to call them) to several of his growls in the studio to give extra impact without him having to push his vocal chords too much in the studio.

Written by Wes on 05.04.2013 at 09:16

That's interesting, I honestly have a very hard time deciding how I feel about his vocals, since there are little snippets here and there where he made stylistic choices to scream in certain ways that I'm not a fan of, but also some parts are just fine and pretty wicked. Here is when I must remind myself that I'm not originally a fan of this genre, so it's not fair for me to complain or rate it low based on stylistic choices. One thing I cannot stand is when people criticize a band for not being what they never were to begin with. I felt a lot of this when Wintersun's Time finally came out. All these people ripping on it who never even liked what Jari was trying to make. It seems like Jesse has a pretty big fan base, so I'll respect that and keep listening. You can probably tell I've been flip flopping a lot on my opinion on this album, from 9 to recently a 7 heh. I think 8 is definitely deserving as this review points out quite well. I just love some of the riffs and clean choruses, so if I was a fan of Jesse, I can see myself rating this higher which I might end up doing : ) I'll be listening.

Written by Uldreth on 05.04.2013 at 11:46

Only gave glancing listens yet but sounds very good so far.

Nice work, Killswitch. Also love the vocals though haven't heard anything as powerful vocally here yet as Numbered Days or Self Revolution.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 06.04.2013 at 10:41

BoxWhore Lilly is stupid. He must be listening this album with "cotton-buds" fucking his ears-in.

this album ain't that bad as it looks. It is definitely a powerful come back record for Killswitch.

I don't know what type of "metalcore" lilly listens.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 06.04.2013 at 10:41

BoxWhore Lilly is stupid. He must be listening this album with "cotton-buds" fucking his ears-in.

this album ain't that bad as it looks. It is definitely a powerful come back record for Killswitch.

I don't know what type of "metalcore" lilly listens.

Written by psykometal on 06.04.2013 at 17:21

Well given that his tastes are typically lo-fi black, gaze and doom bands, I wouldn't base any decision to listen to something like this on what Tanner says about it.

Written by Guest on 06.04.2013 at 17:31

his taste in black metal is certainly not geared toward "lo-fi" stuff

Written by psykometal on 06.04.2013 at 19:07

Then why does he periodically complain in the SB about not being able to find enough good lo-fi black metal?

And I must've missed his gear shift from doom to stoner/sludge...

Written by Guest on 06.04.2013 at 20:02

Probably because he doesn't like lo-fi black metal

I don't really ever recall him being big on proper doom tbh.

Written by psykometal on 06.04.2013 at 21:57

Then why are his own projects lo-fi...?

I think he's more into the "extreme" dooms.

Written by Guest on 07.04.2013 at 04:43

Because he has no ability to make anything well produced and has no choice

Dunno, maybe he likes the odd thing me and Rod like, but I don't think he actively seeks out extreme stuff.

Written by Guest on 06.04.2013 at 17:29

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 06.04.2013 at 10:41

BoxWhore Lilly is stupid. He must be listening this album with "cotton-buds" fucking his ears-in.

this album ain't that bad as it looks. It is definitely a powerful come back record for Killswitch.

I don't know what type of "metalcore" lilly listens.

This album isn't bad by any means but it's a pretty tired rehash of the melodic metalcore sound with a novelty original vocalist giving an underwhelming performance.