Asking Alexandria has one of the bigger fan bases in post hardcore, and if that isn’t enough… they sell out at shows like it’s nothing. They’re over hyped with every release, without any support from anyone but their Facebook posts alone. I think the first single really hyped up this release. It got the band more hate than they probably expected, but hey, if your band changes your sound on every album, it’s gonna be expected. In my opinion, I love the fact that Asking Alexandria tries to do something different on every album, instead of writing the same thing over, and over again… because honestly that gets really boring and dull after a time. I mean, it’s bad enough that bands steal riffs from each other sometimes, but hearing the same sound from a band on every album, that’s going to get boring, and that band’s fan base will decrease within time. Sure, Asking Alexandria loses fans because of their changes, but they also gain from it too! I’ve seen a lot of people disrespect Asking Alexandria for dumb reasons like their past, and their vocalist going to rehab to fix some things in his life. Honestly all of this made me respect them much more. Yes, I did hate them when they first came out, because I thought that they were just some generic band trying to get rich quickly, but their second album proved me wrong. This album made me re-think everything. People will still hate Asking Alexandria, however, I on the other hand have much respect for these guys, and I’m stoked to see where this album takes them in their careers. A few songs that stand out on this album would have to be, “Don’t Pray For Me”, ” The Death Of Me”, “Creature”, “Until The End”, ”The Death Of Me (Rock Mix)”, “Dead”, and “Someone, Somewhere”. “Don’t Pray For Me”, is probably the most interesting song on this album, if I do say so myself. The song shows off the bands new sound perfectly, and also has some of the stuff that Ben Bruce (Lead guitarist) said to the crowd about Danny Wornsop (Vocalist) going to rehab for his alcohol addiction, and him trying to get his life back on track. Both Ben, and Danny have been friends for a long time, best friends at that. I’m actually pretty glad that no matter what Danny did back then, Ben was always defending him. That goes to show that no matter what, friends come first in life. “Don’t Pray For Me”, is basically a song that Danny wrote for people wanting him to completely change his ways. He says “You’re fucking crazy, if you think I’ll ever change, I am mine, I am me, I’ll never change my ways.” Those are some of my favorite lyrics from him so far, because it basically says that he’ll never change to be someone else that he’s not, and that he’ll always be himself. “The Death Of Me”, is the first actual single off of the album (Before someone says no, Run Free was the first single, but it was never planned to be on the album. It was actually written way before the whole album was, and they fixed it up a bit to put it on the album.) It’s one off my favorite songs on this album. It has really neat music to it. If the band didn’t make a music video for this song, I’m pretty sure not a lot of people would understand the meaning of it. It basically means that sin will never be the death of someone, unless they really let it be. The music video (Spoilers) has girls in vending machines that basically represent the seven deadly sins, and the boy picks the sin of greed (I think that’s what the Destiny was.) The music video seems to just mean a lot of different things as I see it. The top things that I see it meaning is about Danny’s drug addiction, the sin, and the voices in his head that makes him think that he’s insane (The song lyrics shows this.) “Creature”, is another one of favorite songs on this album. I honestly thought of Motionless In White when I saw the song title, but no it sounds nothing like their “Creatures”. The thing about this song that makes it stick out, is the little bit of orchestra in it. “Until The End”, is the song that features the one and only, Howard Jones (Ex Killswich Engaged.) I think this is his first debut since he left Killswitch Engaged, and honestly him, and the vocalist of Asking Alexandria make a good pair. They definitely impressed me with this song, and it’s probably Howard’s best work to date, however, I wish his part was somewhat longer. “The Death Of Me (Rock Mix)”, now before anyone really says “What’s the point of this song?” This is a whole different mix of the “The Death Of Me”. This song is more of a rock song, with a mix. The guitar tuning is a bit different, and the drum play is different from the first version of the song. “Dead”, is a bonus song for people who buy the album in the United Kingdom, and people who buy the album at FYE (The store). Honestly, I do recommend buying it for these two songs, because “Dead” should have been on the standard edition of the album because of how good it is. My god, the vocalist’s clean vocals are phenomenal on this song, and that definitely makes the song worth buying. “Someone, Somewhere”, before anyone asks, no this was not pointless. This song is an acoustic, and the singer is Ben Bruce (Lead guitarist). I’m pretty sure that the band got a lot of requests for Ben to do an acoustic sometime, and here it is. It’s a pretty nice track, and Ben has some great vocals.

Breakdown:

Cleans: The clean vocals definitely have a Hair Metal style to them, or an 80’s rock band style. Honestly, it’s not bad, but it’s a bit different than what some people might be used to. However, it’s really good to see the band experimenting with their vocals, and ranges. I really want to see how the next album turns out, hopefully it’s the same sound that is on this album but just changed up a bit.

Screams: The screamers style has changed a lot, for the better of course. The screaming style is a bit deeper than it used to be, and sort of fits the Hair Metal genre (If they were ever aiming for that.) The screams are probably not the best out of all the screaming styles that they’ve had, but it definitely is one of them. My favorite screaming style from Asking Alexandria (If you care) would be the style that he used on Stand Up And Scream (The first album that the band released.)

Rating: 9/10

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