Album Review: Bullet For My Valentine – Bullet For My Valentine (Spinefarm/Search & Destroy)

Bullet for My Valentine’s seventh album, self-titled, will be released on November 5th, 2021 via Spinefarm/Search & Destroy.

Says vocalist and lead guitarist Matt Tuck:

This is the beginning of Bullet 2.0. It signifies where we are right now. The music is fresh, it’s aggressive, it’s more visceral and passionate than it’s ever been.

Adds lead guitarist Michael “Padge” Paget:

I think it’s the most ferocious side of Bullet for My Valentine that I’ve ever known. It’s time for us to put out a really angry, heavy, aggressive record. I just can’t wait to grimace on stage.

Love them or loathe them, no one can deny that Bullet for My Valentine haven’t worked hard to get to the position they are in now. Forming in 1998, being the darlings of the mainstream metal press for a period, having to constantly prove themselves and refusing to sit still for too long, this band has come a long way since The Poison.

Yet, in a way, this album shares a lot in common with their debut. For starters, it is the band digging deep for an aggressive and intensely heavy sound. Secondly, Bullet for My Valentine sound hungry again and this album is them proving they can be mainstream and brutally heavy at the same time. It’s a combination that is very familiar to fans of their debut release but this is Bullet for My Valentine in 2021. It’s a fascinating listen, the balance is complex but done with veritable ease.

On this album the metal heavyweights aren’t reverting back to tried and tested ideas, rather they’re expanding on who they are. Matt Tuck calling this Bullet 2.0 is incredibly accurate and increasingly noticeable as the album goes on.

If all you’ve ever wanted is Bullet for My Valentine to rage and rage hard then you’re in luck. If you like the cleaner passages and radio-friendly choruses, you’re also in luck. If you love a perfect combination of both, then we have some good news for you. It’s here.

With only a few tracks going over the 5-minute mark and with 10-tracks making up the whole album, Bullet for My Valentine want to leave you shell-shocked by what you’re hearing. That they just so happen to be performing out of their skins is all the more impressive. The vocals are fantastic, the guitars are doing things we’ve never heard from this band before and the percussion adds so much heaviness to proceedings.

Is this the best Bullet for My Valentine album so far? It’s certainly in the conversation.

Bullet for My Valentine – Bullet for My Valentine Full Track Listing:

1. Parasite
2. Knives
3. My Reverie
4. No Happy Ever After
5. Can’t Escape the Waves
6. Bastards
7. Rainbow Veins
8. Shatter
9. Paralysed
10. Death By a Thousand Cuts

Links

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Patreon