Review Summary: The sequel to “The Poison” that everyone wanted, but no-one got.
Quite often in the music world, there are certain bands that come along who have a sound that is so similar to their influences that it triggers feelings of nostalgia in the listener. Glamour of the Kill is one of those bands, sounding like the Post-Hardcore little brother of Bullet for my Valentine and to a lesser extent Avenged Sevenfold. Glamour of the Kill’s music is in no way original, but it’s executed very well and damn catchy bar a few songs.
We open up with “Break” which unfortunately is one of the more lackluster tracks on the album featuring an unimpressive feature from Michael Vampire of “The Killing Lights (Formerly known as Vampires Everywhere!).” The song, like most of the songs on the album follows a set Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Solo, Chorus structure. The quality of the tracks jumps from pulse-pounding to disappointing constantly from track to track, making this a very inconsistent experience. Tracks are better listened to individually than in order.
Davey Richmond is the lead vocalist for Glamour of the Kill, and he frankly sounds like Matt Tuck’s (Bullet for my Valentine) more competent and less nasally little brother. He consistently delivers a very stable and enjoyable performance song after song, elevating choruses and easily matching the pace of the instrumentals. He jumps from into his higher register more often than not and pulls it off very well. “Tears of the Sun” is his best performance on the album. The lyricism isn’t anything noteworthy or consistent jumping from rough sex and weekend parties to inner conflicts about one’s own mortality. Despite the wildly different topics, they feel almost completely similar.
Luckily, where Glamour of the Kill shines is in their instrumental department and not in lyricism. Mike and Chris both deliver powerful and high energy performances throughout the album. While there’s plenty of whammy bar abuse and finger tapping going on here, almost every song has catchy riffs, melodic leads and well crafted solos. A great example of guitar work in the album would be “A Beautiful Way to Die”, which is far and away the best track on the album; opening with dueling guitars and some violin styled electronic work backing up the guitars. The bass guitar is for once audible in this genre and keeps up in pacing quite nicely with the other instrumentals. The drums throw in some interesting fills and change pace frequently throughout the album but don’t really get their own chance to shine in the spotlight.
The production is another highlight of this album. Everything is crisp, listenable and isn’t the standard “wall of sound” often employed by many bands in the genre. Every aspect of the music is far more audible because of this. However there was one aspect of the production that was terribly misused on this album. The added synthesizer work on several of the songs (notably in the chorus of “Live for the Weekend”) is downright terrible and shouldn’t have been added; it only serves to sound like a stale gimmick bar a few moments.
In short, Glamour of the Kill has crafted an album that’s high in octane and low in original ideas. For this band however that might be the best idea for them, since their original ideas (the added synthesizers for example) are poorly executed. Until they find their permanent place in the industry, their best bet would be to keep pulling from their influences.
The Best: "A Beautiful Day to Die", "Tears of the Sun", "Second Chance."
The Worst: "Live for the Weekend."
