Asking Alexandria are the latest band to be picked up by the British metal public as being shit. They follow the likes of Bullet For My Valentine and Bring Me The Horizon as being disliked for the cardinal sin of actually wanting to do big things with their career, although it has to be said that there decision to attempt to break America before the UK has probably not helped. From Death to Destiny is their third album and by far their biggest yet.
Opening with a slow electro build that brings to mind Nine Inch Nails “Don’t Pray For Me” eventually becomes a pretty standard metal track, with lead singer Danny Worsnop declaring “you’re fucking crazy, if you think that I’ll ever change.” It’s nothing special but it’s a solid enough start to the album, with it perhaps not being quite as massive a song as you would have expected.
That sadly is what sums up most of this album, you keep thinking that Asking Alexandria are going to drop a huge track in the style of Five Finger Death Punch or Avenged Sevenfold, but it never quite happens. In fact most of the best parts on this album are where they get heavy, which sadly (as they keep going back to the clean choruses) seems to not be what they want to do. Tracks like “The Death of Me” sound great but the lack of a truly huge chorus lets them down.
The heavy parts of this album, on the likes of “Run Free” and “Poison”, remind me of Lamb of God at their most groovy, until those aforementioned choruses kick in, which are more likely to remind you of Take That, with possibly even worse lyrics. While the likes of “Creature” has a chorus that screams Avenged Sevenfold.
My favourite thing on the album is actually “Until the End” which has Howard Jones, ex Killswitch Engage frontman, sounding as good as Howard always has, with his appearance seeming to cause them to stick to a more straight forward metalcore number where the simplicity accentuates their strengths.
This is the first time Asking Alexandria have made their way onto my radar, apart from watching a short part of their set from the hill at Download, and I honestly don’t get why so many people hate them the way they do. Sure this album didn’t blow my world and it didn’t have the huge song that I was kind of expecting but it’s a solid metal album. There is certainly nothing in here that inspired me to wish physical harm on these guys. Sadly, Asking Alexandria are just being set up to be another example of what can be horribly wrong with modern metal fans, something I don’t think they deserve.
On the other hand they’re not actually doing that bad for themselves so I doubt they’re that unhappy. This albums gives a hint as to why that is the case and certainly suggests that these guys could do something good, it’s just not quite happened yet.
For Fans Of: Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine
Choice Cuts: “Until The End”, “The Death of Me”.
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