BRING ME THE HORIZON — This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For (review)

BRING ME THE HORIZON — This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For album cover

EP · 2006 · Metalcore

0.5/5 · 2010-05-04
DeathOfSeasons

Obviously all bands need to start somewhere, and the majority of the time their first release isn't all that good, but there are some cases where you just can't work out what anyone could possibly see in a release, and if you ask me This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For is definitely one of those cases. While I could easily name hundreds of things wrong with this album off the top of my head, I don't think I could name a single positive. I might be able to name a few inoffensive things about this album, but nothing good. At least Suicide Season had a few so bad it's good moments (Chelsea Smile anyone?) but this is just horrible.

This Is What the Edge... starts off with "RE: They Had No Reflections". You're greeted with a tonne of pinch harmonics and a spiralling riff played over a breakdown, followed by yet another breakdown only for the spiralling riff to return for a second outing. Oh, and all this happens in the first thirty seconds. So seeing as they'd used two breakdowns already despite the fact we're less than one tenth into the song you'd think we Bring Me the Horizon could wait a bit before busting out another of those infamous chug-chug moments. Well we do get some primal Slaughter of the Soul worship for a solid twenty seconds only to get hit with another breakdown. Then after some more random dicking around with what Bring Me the Horizon would consider pointless riffs, we get greeted with....radio frequencies? Really? All of "RE: They Had No Reflections" is a waste, as the song repeats the same riff and breakdown at least a dozen times over the close to six minute run time of this song. It's generally thought that if you don't have enough material for six minute then you do not write a song that long, though Bring Me the Horizon seem to have missed that lesson.

Things only get worse as the album goes on. "Who Wants Flowers When They're Dead? Nobody" is more or less the first song but with some poorly down gang vocals and Oli using his Suicide Season styled vocals. "Rawwwwrr!!" takes the worst of the opening two tracks and adds in twice as much pinch harmonic whoring. Though the worst is saved for last with "Traitors Never Play Hangman", which is identical to "RE: They Had No Reflections" except for the outro which consists of Sykes screaming nonsense. Fun.

If I had to pick what the biggest problem with album is it wouldn't be the completely stock standard drumming, the incredibly dull riffs or the breakdowns that occur every thirty seconds. No, it would be the vocals. Oli Sykes claims to have learnt how to sing entirely by singing along to records in his room, and it shows. I have never before heard such weak screaming. If I had to compare it to something it would be that of a ten year old girl who just stubbed her toe. He really has not a single bit of power. Then you have his growls, which I would compare to that of a novice vocalist with a throat infection. Though his hardcore shouts really do take out the award of being worst on show. Not only does he not seem to be able to decide whether to scream or shout, he also does so with so little care. If this were a televised situation you can be sure he'd be standing there reading all his lines off a cue card while eyeing the clock, just waiting to go home.

So there is not a single redeeming thing on this album. The only pros are that the songs get shorter as they go on and that they didn't include the fifth track that was originally meant to appear. Terrible even by Bring Me the Horizon's standards, out of all the albums released in 2004 this is the one that deserves to be forgotten.

Download: Declaration by Bleeding Through

For fans of: Architects, Antagonist A.D.

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)