Review Summary: The Word Alive skilfully craft an album that is both catchy while also retaining originality.
The Word Alive have been around for a few years now, first created in 2006 by original vocalist Craig Mabbit (ex blessthefall, current Escape The Fate) they've decided to craft an album that not only has a lot of catchy melodies and choruses, but also a lot of creativity, something hard-pressed to find in the genre. That doesn't mean that they are completely devoid of error. While creating interesting breakdowns in most songs, if in fact all, they do have more than 1 breakdown per son. Although this is quite common with... er "scene" bands as we've labeled the bread, The Word Alive still manage to make the experience enjoyable, or at least tolerable.
But do not let this stray you from checking this debut full length out, it's a contestant shoo-in for album of the year, of the post-hardcore/metalcore genre of course.
The synths are probably the most interesting thing about this band, used effectively during their actual riffage or even being the riff itself. Take the song 2012, listen to 0:42, and prepare for eargasm. This also will show you a prime example of they type of breakdowns in this album. While forgivably their are an excess amount of breakdowns on this album, they're at least interesting and original.
The bassist is pretty standard, at times showing skill but mostly it's played safe.
The vocals are the shining point, Tyler "Telle" Smith knows how to sing, and with his bassist backing him up with dual screams, it's pretty crazy, in a good way.
Guitars are great, sweeps are a normal occurrence but without getting tiring or irritating. Either that or riffing along with choruses and blasting with breakdowns. Sometimes even barely there with the slow softer parts of the album.
The drums are above average but not amazing. He knows how to play an interesting beat while keeping it diverse and original. But nothing absolutely screams complicated, just fresh, which is welcome to a regular of the genre.
This 6-piece has potential, but it's just fair to say that they aren't there yet. If they keep up release like this though, and stray from the normal path of a popular post-hardcore/metalcore band, they will definitely get there.
