Review Summary: Stay with me, i'm afraid of my soul, blackened and left in control
Say the name
Black Veil Brides, and it will conjure up one of the most polarizing rock bands of the past decade. Loved and hated for all the same reasons, the Cincinnatti-born five-piece have nethertheless trucked on without giving a damn what anyone thinks, for better or worse. The band went on a break post-self titled due to some behind the scenes shenanigans involving former bassist and noted jackass Ashley Purdy, and eventually broke free from the shackles of major label bulls**t after 2018's
Vale, with both that and all of the pre-
Phantom Tomorrow albums sounding painfully decent, but never capable of conjuring up anything worth listening to multiple times outside of the occassional single (then again, this
is Black Veil Brides we're talking about). Now on Sumerian Records, the band may have finally found its chance to do something
exclusively on their own terms and perhaps craft something great. Did they succeed?
Eh, sort of.
Stylistically,
The Phantom Tomorrow is almost no different from BVB's previous outings, other than the fact that it's decidedly more pop-leaning than even
Vale was. Almost immediately, album opener (bar the useless introductory track) "Scarlet Cross" hits you with perhaps the most energy Biersack and company have had in years, no doubt rejuvenated by the lack of Purdy and his extreme lack of talent. Unfortunately, incoming bass player Lonny Eagleton is essentially mixed out despite the talent he's shown on his YouTube channel, which is sadly an issue on
every single track on the album. Despite the startling lack of any detectable bass, the song is perhaps one of the finest demonstrations of what the band can do when everyone involved is actually giving any remote effort. "Born Again" sees Biersack channeling his inner post-grunger, which ironically makes for another album highlight and giving nice contrast to the pop-punk lean of "Scarlet Cross". While there are stinkers mixed in, they're nowhere near as bad as some of the other albums the band's put out, and even some of the lesser cuts have some entertainment value: "Torch" is the band's first competent ballad since "Savior" from
Set The World on Fire, while "Shadows Rise" is undeniably catchy as all hell (and infuses some cool synths into the mix at points). Fortunately, the good outweighs the bad on
The Phantom Tomorrow: the worst offenders are mere forgettable/filler tracks such as the interlude and "The Wicked One".
Lyrically,
The Phantom Tomorrow is supposed to be a concept album, but lets face it: concept albums, and lyrics in general, have never been this band's strong suit. There's nothing overly bad or cringy, but it's the cookie cutter emo lyrics that one would expect from a band like this. While Andy Biersack and Friends might never put out a five-star classic, Black Veil Brides have at the very least shown with
The Phantom Tomorrow that they can at least put out an entertaining album if they actually try. It's no masterpiece, but at the end of the day, it's a catchy, albeit generic, radio metal record in the vein of Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace that doesn't really need to accomplish anything special.
