Hollywood Undead- Day Of The Dead (review)

Yesterday ‘Day of the Dead’ was released by one of my favourite bands ‘Hollywood Undead’. I was so excited to listen to it, I was checking their facebook page all day waiting to see it had been posted. Finally, when it was uploaded I was not disappointed! Unlike with their last album ‘Notes From The Underground’ where I just couldn’t get into it. I feel like this new single is more like the classic Hollywood Undead I got into as an angry and rebellious 14 year old. I don’t see this as a bad thing though; Hollywood Undead are one of the bands that inspired most of my GCSE artwork and inspired me to write my own songs.
The song kicks off with Charlie Scene singing the chorus with just an acoustic clean guitar backing him up before it rips into a hard-hitting guitar riff. This opens up for Johnny 3 tears to blast out the 1st verse still using the similar melody for his lyrics as usual. If you are a massive Hollywood Undead fan then you can probably already imagine what Johnny’s verse already sounds like. One massive change over the past few years for HU has been the departure of Duece and the introduction of the vocalist Danny. In my opinion, Danny reminds me of a boy band singer, I think this compliments the emotional and hard-hitting lyrical subjects that HU write their songs about. There is no change with that in this song; Danny’s vocals in the chorus are very clean and superior. Enter the one and the only Charlie Scene with the 2nd Verse. He seems to rap most of his verse with no rest which I love so much; The lyrics flow very well.

The bridge is something I would like to concentrate on as they have done something quite clever with the instrumental. As the song is called ‘Day Of The Dead’ (which is a holiday in Mexico and around the world in certain cultures celebrating the lives of the dead) They have a Spanish style guitar playing underneath the lyrics of the bridge and a haunting high-pitched sound piercing through. This breaks down the song tremendously well before the chorus comes back in with screaming vocals, keeping in the classic Hollywood Undead fashion.

Overall I thought this song was great and I can’t wait for the release of their new album early next year. It’s great to see that Hollywood Undead are back and they seem to be back harder than ever before. You can listen to the song yourself down in the link below so check it out! 7/10.

Bring Me The Horizon- Drown (Review)

So look who’s back and has learnt how to sing pretty damn well! Bring me the horizon released their new song ‘Drown’ today and it seems in the time since their last album Oli Sykes has been taking some more singing lessons. We’ve all seen his voice develop since they released their debut album in 2006 ‘Count your blessings’. As a young band they were very heavy and Oli’s voice was pretty much just high-pitched yelps and growls. Whereas in ‘Drown’ his vocals are clean and so powerful in the chorus (it’s almost as if the major label has told him to learn how to sing, which is not a bad thing at all!) To me this new song almost sounds like an English and less arrogant 30 Seconds To Mars.

The first thing I noticed as soon as the song came on was how loud the drums are in the mix, they cut through a powerful guitar riff and overlaying choir as soon as the song starts. I’m not saying this is a bad thing as the drums sound absolutely fantastic, the whole production on the track sounds great. The only bad thing about the production being so good is that after seeing them live quite a few times myself; I know deep down that they won’t be able to perform it as well as it sounds. However, still go check them out live as it is definitely a great experience seeing them live as they put so much energy into their live sets.

As the intro fades into the verse Oli’s almost whispers the lyrics ‘What doesn’t kill you, makes you wish you were dead. Got a hole in my soul growing deeper and deeper and i can’t take’ before it rips into a powerful 2nd half of the verse. They use this structure in both verses and the pre-chorus; which makes you feel like you’re getting punched in the face and then left to rest, but it just happens again 20 seconds later. The chorus has a lot of emotion with almost choir like backing vocals on the hook. ‘Don’t let me drown’ which adds such a haunting impact on the song.

Listening through the song as it goes from clean to heavy repeatedly I just had a feeling it was all leading up to a very big ending and that’s exactly what happens. A quiet subdued bridge explodes into a massive chorus ripping you a new a-hole with heavy distorted guitars, huge drums, great bass tones and a choir! Before all cutting away leaving a clean guitar and Oli’s vocals to end the song.

Overall Bring Me The Horizon are a band that seem to be getting better and better with each album and in my opinion they are going to be legendary one day if they keep releasing songs as good as this. Well worth a listen! And the music video is pretty great and quite humourous aswell. 9/10.