Review Summary: Never know what you've got till it's gone.
In all truth, the young men of post-hardcore/pop/punk outfit Before Their Eyes must not've realized the perfection acheived on their self-titled, which was ranked highly by our own Sputnik, as well as AllMusic, Alternative Press, and JFH. While some moments on their sophomore effort
The Dawn Of My Death recaptured the chemistry (namely "The Things We Stood Against" and "Life Was All A Dream"), it was a major leap down and was overproduced and sugary, lacking the organic tone of the self-titled. However, what they had wasn't quite gone yet, to paraphrase the old axoim. Again, they made promises that the proceeding effort would be "heavier and better", and again they produced major fan hype. Did they succeed where they ultimately failed with TDOMD? No, they just screwed up worse.
On Before Their Eyes and even a little on The Dawn Of My Death, BTE was able to craft and play post-hardcore that didn't sound quite like any other group. Don't get me wrong, they were obviously post-hardcore in the vein of A Day To Remember or Close Your Eyes, but something about them just seemed unique. Yep, that's totally gone this time around. Clean vocalist Nick Moore adapts his most high-pitched and generic delivery yet, not even coming close to the talent reached on "Why 6 Is Afraid Of 7" and "City In A Snowglobe". The delivery is passable, but ultimately flies under the radar in a very bad way. Rhythm guitarist/harsh vocalist Landon Tewers is a good growler, and keeps the album from failing on that account, but his guitar performance is minmal and almost not there at all. When it's there, it's the same exact chugging/power chord rhythm repeated and recycled to little variation. All the guitar riffs sound the same this record, basically. Lead guitarist Jordan Disorbo may as well not be there either, only really popping up in "My Match, Your Fire" and bits and pieces of "Sing To Me". Jared Hottman (drummer) performs well the entire record, but especially "Rick vs. Nick". Bass doesn't really show up at all.
Album opener "Hey Dude" is a nice way to kick off the record and is one of the only heavy songs, making it somewhat of a standout. Sadly, it sounds exactly like any other post-hardcore band, and the melodic moments and heavy moments are extremely predictable. "Sing To Me" has some nice vocal chops from Nick, though his pitch can become extremely annoying. Both "Rick vs. Nick" and "Hell Or High Water" are heavy, bordering-on-metalcore songs led mainly by screams and gritty guitar riffs. "Hell Or High Water" contains the best breakdown BTE has ever written and is extremely intense, and the fast pace of "Rick vs. Nick" almost makes the listener forget about all the filler.
And man, there's a ton of filler. "Not Alone", "Love Is Misery" and "My Match, Your Fire" are boring and barely passable pop/punk tracks that sound terrible on a BTE album. "Bulletproof" and "Finding A Way" are unfortunate attemps at "popcore", but end up being ruined by both lack of chemistry between the duel vocalists and some truly cringeworthy lyrics. Finally, we have one of the worst songs BTE has ever written: "Start With Today". It has a bango, slide guitar, and a female guest vocalist, and it honestly sucks. For one, Nick Moore's whiny voice doesn't really fit with the country feel the band was trying to give out, and the banjo sounds totally out of place as well. The lyrics suck and sound ripped from either a Hallmark card or the newest country pop hit. Seriously, avoid this one at all costs.
Lyrically, BTE were never saints, even on the highly praised self-titled. However, moments of the self-titled honestly had me either in tears or passionately raging. Besides "Hey Dude", that feel is totally absent. While "Hey Dude" describes fighting both peer pressure and personal demons, the gushy, gooey lyrics on "Love Is Misery" and "My Match" sound generic and forced. "Hell Or High Water" seems to be about the military, and while this is commendable, it just sounds flat out strange coming from Before Their Eyes. "Finding A Way" contains " it's something that I've gotta do, I've really gotta make a move", so that gives a general idea how lyrics went this time around.
I tried so hard to like this for about three years, but now that I've matured a little, this honestly sucked, even with the better moments. Get the standouts, but stay far away from the rest.
