A Day To Remember have often been criticised for their slightly samey records, with albums such as Homesick and Common Courtesy pouring generic sounds of the typical post-hardcore and pop-punk genres into a blender and blasting it to the ears of avid listeners. Bad Vibrations, the band’s sixth studio album had ADTR heading back to their metal-core roots which made similar albums such as For Those Who Have A Heart and What Separates Me From You such a success.
I’ll be honest and say that the opening track ‘Bad Vibrations’ was almost a turn off, sounding a little too on the side of ‘The Ghost Inside’, but it did play to ADTR’s strengths; hard and powerful vocals intertwined with chunky riffs. I was quick to misjudge the opening and found myself unconsciously headbanging to Jeremy McKinnon’s in your face vocals and lyricism combined with hard hitting percussion, chugging guitar leads and punchy basslines accompanied by what ADTR do best: breakdowns. The utter sounds of panic and frustration from the title track then head into ‘Paranoia’, another big swinger to please the bulk of fans. If you are looking for other head-banging guitar riffs and aggressive vocals, then ‘Bullfight’, ‘Exposed’ and ‘Turn Off The Radio’ will guarantee you will fall in love with the album, with tracks such as ‘Reassemble’ highlighting the exceptional drumming abilities of Alex Shelnutt. For some calmer tunes to jam to, ‘Forgive and Forget’ and ‘Same About You’ add variety and remove the repetitive sounds of their previous records.
Talking to RockSound about the album title, frontman Jeremy McKinnon said of the record:
“The record is called Bad Vibrations because that’s what I was feeling at the time, stuck in this weird, high-stress mindset every day. I was terrified. I went in to record with nothing much to offer – hardly anything that I was excited about. I’ve never had a problem with pushing other people’s expectations aside, but it became a real issue. Thankfully the other guys stepped in and brought some great stuff to the table.”
As with any ADTR album, there are always two or three songs that are painfully-average songs sprinkled in between the great ones. It takes us a number of tracks of metalcore greatness before they slow the pace down with ‘Naivety’, a snapshot of pop-punk that any Sum 41 fans left in the world would be proud of, a little too straight forward and similar to the predecessor album Common Courtesy. But the pop-punk vibes don’t stop there, with ‘We Got This’ channeling ‘The Wonder Years’ emotional, teen angst pop punk-esque attitude.
Bad Vibrations is overall an outstanding album, allowing us to forget the downfall and slump of the radio friendly predecessor Common Courtesy. From the sheer weight that vocalist Jeremy McKinnon encapsulates so well, to more harmonious sounds littered with pop punk, the album demonstrates that the band can still put together an album with tracks to make a number of ADTR fans happy. The album still demonstrates their ability to honour where they came from, whilst still capturing where modern metalcore bands are heading. With heavy lyricism combined with bouncy riffs, toe-tapping percussion and grooving basslines, ADTR are swinging back onto the scene with a vengeance. You have been warned.
Recommended tracks: Bad Vibrations, Exposed, Negative Space (one of the bonus tracks available on the deluxe edition).
Be sure to check out A Day To Remember as they head down under with Of Mice & Men with support Tonight Alive for the Bad Vibes tour in December. Get your tickets from Live Nation.
To mark the release of Bad Vibrations, A Day To Remember have issued a video for their track Naivety. Watch it below.