Bullet For My Valentine – 'Bullet For My Valentine'

Bullet For My Valentine have released their highly anticipated 7th studio album. Before we begin, I can assure you that this album was well worth the 3 year wait since their last offering. The album kicks off with ‘Parasite’. This was the second single released to promote the album and with its thrash influenced riffs, furious lyrics and lightning-fast guitar solo it sets the tone for the rest of the album. Bullet are back and this time they’re angrier than ever. Interestingly the album version of this track includes a minute and a half intro with samples from tracks across Bullet’s entire back catalogue, from brief snippets of ‘Your Betrayal’ and ‘Hand of Blood’ to ‘No Way Out’ and many more. This feels fitting as the new album is the perfect mix of old and new bullet. We have the high tempo aggression of their early work mixed with the big choruses, breakdowns and electronic elements we associate with modern Bullet. ‘Knives’ ‘My Reverie’ and ‘Shatter’ have that classic Bullet feel to them and Matt’s voice sounds better than ever. It’s great to hear him doing more screaming on albums again. The mix on this album is great. Matt and Padge’s guitars sound huge and sit really nicely in the mix. Jamie’s bass is clear and audible throughout (his bass tone really shines in the verses of ‘Rainbow Veins’). Jason’s drums are phenomenal throughout. From the short blastbeat in ‘Parasite’ to the solo of ‘Death By A Thousand Cuts’ he doesn’t let up once. All in all a very impressive mix that you should listen to on good speakers if you can. At this point it’s expected that Bullet will have at least one ballad on each album. That is far from the case on this album. ‘Rainbow Veins’ is perhaps the closes to a ballad on the album but even then, the drums and combined volume of the guitars and bass hit hard. I think its fair to say that this is probably the heaviest album the band have ever written. Paralysed’ and ‘Death By A Thousand Cuts’ end the album on a high note and feature some of the catchiest choruses on the album.