Skip to main content

ALBUM REVIEW: "You, Me And Everything In Between." by Belle Haven

   Post-hardcore is a strange genre; so many bands and records in the genre are so inherently of its time and quickly become indicative of that particular period, and then those tropes quickly become "cliche", whatever the hell that means in this genre. There are so many mid-2000s post-hardcore records that sound almost exactly the same, and equally as many later records that sound equally as similar, that I'm generally pretty hesitant going into a new post-hardcore record. That's not to say post-hardcore is inherently bad - just listen to any Underoath record after 2004 or the new Norma Jean record - but I do think that more often than not a post-hardcore record written to specifically be a post-hardcore record is immediately hampered by the restrictions and inherent missteps everyone's already heard a thousand times. It's when these elements are brought together with something more honest and genuine outside of genre conventions that something special can happen.
   Belle Haven have done just that on their second album You, Me And Everything In Between, an album that fits within the well worn boundaries of the genre but offer so much more than the majority of similar records. Having seen the band twice and experienced the insane energy and freedom of expression they bring to their performance, it's fantastic to hear this translated better into an album than their debut album Everything Ablaze (which was a solid but flawed debut). It's frantic, energetic, not overly polished and does a much better job of capturing the band's live personality (really similar to the difference between Underoath's They're Only Chasing Safety and Define The Great Line). I was floored by how much better this record is compared to their debut - they have matured and developed hugely and it really shows all over YMEB. It's more cohesive, tighter in its focus and more diverse in its sound, and has more than a handful of insanely catchy hooks. Lead singer David Vernon delivers an incredibly dynamic performance, effortlessly transitioning from screams to cleans and doing a great job of filling the space between the two, something you rarely hear in this style of music. I won't go into detail about the lyrical topics because that's for you to explore when you listen, but the album is nicely tied together thematically and has more than a few emotional highlights.
   YMEB is a fantastic sophomore effort from a really promising young band that are taking all the right steps. Bruisingly heavy, melodic, emotionally draining and catchy - often all in the same song - it's a dynamic and exciting post-hardcore record making the wait for new music from Underoath a bit more bearable.

   Favourite Songs: "Selfmade", Burn The Witch, Egophobia and Me.

    Least Favourite Song: The Carving Knife

   Rating: A

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal ...
2 comments
Read more

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

   Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought...
Post a Comment
Read more

Should Brand New be in my top 20? (CONTENT WARNING: sexual abuse)

    For those who read both top 20 albums lists that I did - one here on thatmusicnerd and one over at Kill Your Stereo - you will have noticed, I'm sure, that one had The Ongoing Concept's album Places at number 1, and the other had Brand New's Science Fiction at the top. Full disclosure, I initially had Brand New at the top of just the one list, but the readership of Kill Your Stereo reacted very strongly against the allegations of sexual misconduct against Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey and so I removed it entirely. In fact, none of the  KYS contributors' top 20 lists featured Science Fiction at all. Of course I was happy to follow the general consensus in regards to whether or not an artist accused of such things should be promoted by a music publication, but I still stand by my opinion that Science Fiction was the best album of 2017 and as such it was number 1 on my thatmusicnerd top 20 list.    2017 has been a pretty crazy year in terms of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more