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The Word Alive

Life Cycles

Written by: PP on 21/12/2012 19:41:08

In the battle of success between modern scenecore bands, metalcore unit The Word Alive have been one of the most successful despite only having reached their sophomore album "Life Cycles". Our lately inactive scene correspondent BL had some words of high praise for both their debut EP and debut album as well, but in the ears of this scribe, "Life Cycles" must be a sophomore slump of epic proportions considering how generic it is overall in its sound.

Lets start with the screaming. It's terribly pointless because it neither carries enough power nor aggression with it to function as a proper countermeasure against the emo-ish clean vocals. They're a bad case of 'wraaaghhing for wraaghhing's sake, without technical prowess nor providing anything else interesting to the mix. The cleans, too, are textbook, and although they are the highlight of an otherwise bland metalcore album, they are nothing special. Compare them to, say, the latest Memphis May Fire album and notice how they feel forgettable and anonymous. There's an electronic backdrop, but the production leaves it mostly to the background so it's barely noticeable throughout the disc. Not that it adds anything significant to the sound anyway, it's just filling an otherwise bland soundscape with a few cheap effects, that's all.

So although "Life Cycles" is played with reasonable competency, the songwriting is forgettable and a huge step down from "Deceiver". In just two short years, The Word Alive have managed to downgrade from one of the most exciting metalcore bands around into yet another generic band without a soul or an identity to call their own. This is metalcore on autopilot, peeps, and given how saturated the genre is, that's just not good enough.

Download: Wishmaster, Bar Fight
For the fans of: Miss May I, Blessthefall, The Devil Wears Prada
Listen: Facebook

Release date 03.07.2012
Fearless Records