For over a decade, Florida’s A Day To Remember have walked the tight rope back and forth between sweet pop-punk goodness, and gut-punching metalcore. Certainly seen as one of the leaders in that scene, they have proved better than most that you can make wonderfully catchy tunes and still be heavy enough to throw down to. With the much publicised lawsuit against their former label Victory Records still ongoing, the band has had an “us against them” vibe for some time now. While you can make a case that marketing and social media makes it easier for a major band to go independent these days, ADTR has made it real with their consistent releases, and ever-growing fan base of diehards. It’s no wonder the rewards for the listener are many on their new album Bad Vibrations (A Day To Remember Records)
Opening with the crunching title track, it doesn’t disappoint. Vocalist Jeremy McKinnon seems to strip his vocal chords one minute, followed by terrific melodic singing the next. The band is always great at building drama musically, event when there isn’t much to draw from dynamically on a track like this. Also to their credit, when a lot of bands are resorting to the gimmicky bass-drops and other tired musical devices, these guys keep it heavy with the Vitamin R- level riffs of Neil Westfall and Kevin Skaff. Played with the skill of thrash masters, but all the heft of the best hardcore, ADTR is at their best with these types of tracks, and there are quite a few on Bad Vibrations.
Another rager, ‘Paranoia’ is equal parts thrashy metalcore, with a wide-open soaring chorus. The lyrics definitely capture that post-millennial angst of their core fans and you can just imagine throngs of festival crowds loving this song. The breakdown is enormous and groovy as hell. The next track on the album might be a tough runner-up as the best track on the album. Pure punk rock fun with great vocals. ‘Exposed’ ought to be a future single. Super heavy, it almost sounds like it was written by Five Finger Death Punch or Sevendust, with its hard metal grooves and guitar melodies. ‘Bullfight’ is another current single that is radio friendly, but still rocks.
The front end of the album is loaded with these type of songs and if that is all it had going for it, it,, would be enough for an excellent album.
‘Reassemble’ is surprising track with its brutal licks and head-nodding grooves, but surprises with the triumph in the refrain and an impressive coda. ‘Justified’ and ‘We Got This’ veer into the arena rock and pop punk respectively. ‘Same About You’ is a notch harder and better than these two tracks, with a little mash-up of both styles.
The album closes out strong with amped up ‘Turn Off The Radio’ and the emotional ballad ‘Forgive and Forget’. Bad Vibrations is easily the best album the band has made top to bottom since their first three releases. It’s encouraging to see the band continue to strive and reach new levels in their writing.
8.5/10
KEITH CHACHKES
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