Bullet For My Valentine - Fever

As far as contemporary British metal is concerned and the heavyweights within it, Bullet For My Valentine are one of the top guns. It’s a fact. Dislike them all you want and call them fags because of how they look, but the fact of the matter is that preferences aside, BFMV are one of the biggest young metal/alternative bands on the planet. Unlike, some of their counterparts in say a Funeral For A Friend or to an extent Lostprophets, they’ve made a massive dent Stateside, and their success over there looks to be only rising.

But with that said, Bullet still feel like a reasonably fresh act, even though debut record, The Poison was released way back in 2005. My, how time flies. That record was a solid one edifying barrel loads of potential and its subsequent touring schedule only strengthened those possibilities. But after a long slog of said touring, its follow up, Scream Aim Fire was an underwhelming and lacklustre affair. From its regurgitation of riffs from The Poison and overtly poppy manner, the album was just a sitting duck. But through that mire Bullet still excelled, success and sales wise and with some new momentum behind them, they didn’t take as long to follow it up with this – Fever.

Compared to its predecessor, Bullet must be commended for stepping up their game. But the bulk of this offering maintains one constant tone throughout. It’s not here to convert anyone necessarily, but will simultaneously continue their appeal to a vast, simplistic modern metal audience.

There’s an unavoidable presence of Killswitch Engage in the urgent opener and chorus of 'Your Betrayal'. Right through, the choruses are simple (i.e. the title track) and cohesive with Matt Tuck’s vocals, which he has most definitely expanded on, eschewing that identical vocal line that seemed to litter the last two records.

Songs like 'Begging For Mercy' have more and more of those chunky radio infiltrating, arena filling choruses. That said there are some inescapable cringe moments on Fever. It’s cluttered with clichéd metal song titles but that’s easy to look past but lyrics like “Can I die with you so we never get old?” are a little more difficulties to look away from. However, those are frivolous, far less important issues to be addressed on this record.

Fever’s production, for the most part is over polished and certainly far too glistening. In fact sunglasses should almost be released as an accompaniment for the record. Too much of that polishing emphasis is placed upon those catchiness-drenched riffs. Even though those hooks are Bullet’s focal point, here they stand unnecessarily high above all else and the bass is lost in the mix leaving the sound somewhat hollow and empty.

But closer, 'Pretty On The Outside' is a massive anthem destined for screaming fans in the mass crowds that inevitably await them. It’s by far Fever’s strongest moment amongst the rest which does anything but astonish. But despite its mediocrity hills of gold are visible in the distance.

5/10