Riding high on their recent tour of Japan, and livestream concert at Budokan with a reunion with former guitarist Marty Friedman, Thrash legends Megadeth have announced North American tour dates, primarily focusing on Canada. Bullet For My Valentine will provide direct support. Canadian progressive metal band Oni will kick off the tour as the opening act. Megadeth will tour Europe this summer and also perform at festivals. Continue reading
Ghost Cult caught up Bullet for My Valentine on the road in New Jersey a while back for an interview. The UK rock and metal band have been to the USA three times in the last year supporting their 2018 release Gravity (Spinefarm). We chatted with drummer Jason Bowld about the fan reaction to Gravity, being at peace with your choices as an artist, touring with Avenged Sevenfold, We Came As Romans, Spotify his approach to drumming live in amphitheaters and festivals, staying sane and fit on the road, and more. Interview by Keefy with videography by Omar Cordy of OJC Photography. Assisted by Paul Coughlan. Continue reading
Bullet For My Valentine just released their new album Gravity (RCA) last month. Depending on which edition you picked up, there was a bonus track. Hear BFMV cover Imagine Dragons ‘Radioactive’ in a new clip. Continue reading
Bullet For My Valentine has their new album Gravity due for release at the end of this month. Watch their new music video for their track ‘Letting You Go’
Welsh neo-thrashers Bullet For My Valentine has released a new single, ‘Over It’. The track comes from their forthcoming new album Gravity due out on June 29thb via their label Search And Destroy/Spinefarm Records. The band debut the new track on BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show With Daniel P. Carter yesterday. Jam it out now! Continue reading
It’s have to believe Bullet For My Valentine are five albums into their career so far. Striking hard with The Poison (visible Noise/Trustkill) ten years ago, the band broke big at the time when neo-thrash wasn’t a dirty word and mixing metalcore with heavier music was just becoming a super-popular thing. BFMV rode that wave and now have legion of dedicated fans that have stayed the course with the band. Always a little more sure and sharp than most of their peers, the band has mainly stayed true to their thrash roots and never let a good melody stand in the way a heavy song. However, on their new album Venom (RCA), they seemed to have lost that bite that made them stand out so much before.
Following the intro track ‘V’, the album kicks off in earnest with ‘No Way Out’, a fast riffer. Right off the bat you hear front man Matt Tuck’s strong lead vocals carrying the tune. Tuck has always been a solid screamer and singer, but there seemed to be little grit left to his delivery. Next track ‘Army Of Noise’ is a step up. More in the classic BFMV vein, it has the right mix of heavy and catchy. ‘Worthless’ is another good track with more fun gang vocals. And that is also the problem. The tracks all seem to follow the problematic formula of being almost syrupy in the verses. There is little variation from the album overall, beyond the tropes of modern metal the band has already used in their better known work. To my ears this gets old after a few tracks. I’m all for bands experimenting and changing this smacks of a set-back. A few songs are flat-out bad, such as the title track. Some of the remaining cuts like ‘Pariah’ are pretty solid, especially the lead guitar work, but not what I had hoped for. This comes after I felt that 2013’s Temper Temper album was also disappointing.
One good thing about this band is they will give themselves a chance at redemption down the road. With their past writing chops to lean on and their electric live shows sure to keep them a headline name, that means they can overcome this blip in a few years with a much better album.
6.5/10
KEITH CHACHKES