Vale - Black Veil Brides Review

Vale - Black Veil Brides

6.5/10

... I feel silly for enjoying this album as much as I did. The lyricism on this album is overly cliche, to the point where you can predict the next lyric before it even happens. And that's not even counting when they just repeat themselves OVER and OVER again.

The Last One

"I swear this time is gonna be the last one

gonna be the last time

(Oh Whoa)

This time is gonna be the last one

gonna be the last one

(Oh Whoa)"

Dead Man Walking (Overture II)

"Feel like a dead man walking
A dead man walking
I'm a dead man walking
A dead man walking"

Still, these 2 tracks are some of my favorite on this album, with their complex instrumentals and huge, powerful moments. The overture at the end of Dead Man Walking in an incredible moment, and really feels like it should be the end of the album right then and there.

That's when a thought crossed my mind:

This is 2 separate projects.

You have project 1, which for this blog's sake will be called "Starting At The End" (It's the translation of Incipiens ad finem, the album's intro track). This project is very well structured, everything has a reason to be exactly where it is. This project is incredible, and really a joy to listen to. If the whole album was like this it would get at least an 8 from me. It's that good.

Then you have project 2, which I'm gonna use the album's name for, since the track Vale is in this part of the album. This project has some really great tracks on it, with Our Destiny, My Vow, and Vale (This Is Where It Ends) standing out in my mind. This project, however, doesn't have that structure that made the other part of this album so special. It feels like they took so much time on the first project and then just put whatever left over songs they thought were decent enough onto this record.

It's a shame, really. If they took out project 2 withe exception of My Vow and Our Destiny, and put Dead Man Walking at the end of the record with a reworked overture to cover the added songs I would give this album an 8 or 9. It's that good to listen to.

The other tracks on here just kinda ruin the mood the album has been building up, and take you out of the moment and back into reality. Ballad Of The Lonely Hearts seems just like a lazy add on to this album, with Throw The First Stone not doing much better. The King Of Pain clearly has much more effort put into it, and while I'm personally don't enjoy the song, I can understand how others can and why it made it onto this project.

I really enjoyed this album. The first 30 minutes were truly something to admire and treasure, and I look forward to coming back to this album in the future to listen!

Favorite Tracks - The Outsider, The Last One, Our Destiny, Dead Man Walking

Least Favorite Tracks - Ballad Of The Lonely Hearts, Throw The First Stone

6.5/10

Thank you all for reading! And as always, this is Kenny Haller, over and out.