Scream Aim & Fire

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HarlowTheFish
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Scream Aim & Fire

Post by HarlowTheFish » Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:30 am

So I've been going back to listen to some of the emo metal stuff I used to love in high school and like

Can we take a minute to appreciate how fucking amazing this album sounds? It's got this insanely chunky, fat mix, but it's not muddy, everything's clear, the guitars and bass are separated beautifully (in the sense that you can hear all the parts on their own easily) but are still this huge wall of heavy. NGL I'm gonna be doing a BfmV deep dive because I gotta get good at this kinda tone (both guitar-wise and mix-wise), it's ridiculously good.

Edit for some standouts:
Scream Aim & Fire -- the title track sounds like a fucking freight train
Hearts Burst into Fire -- probably holds up the best as far as being whiny and emo in an introspective and not toxic way
Deliver Us From Evil -- crazy good ambience, pretty clean arrangement-wise, and IMO the standout track to jam to/over
Take It Out On Me -- killer riff, this is probably Matt Tuck's most consistently good vocal performance on the album. a cople of songs have better moments, but this one's good all the way through
Forever and Always -- cheesy as shit, but it's hella wholesome by this band's standards, and it's the kinda stadium rock thing that actually sounds like it would work in a stadium

and a couple from the deluxe edition:
Road to Nowhere -- tied for my favorite on the album with Hearts Burst into Fire, starts kinda chill but gets heavy, and has a great build. good vocal melody, and I think this is the one that has the absolute best mix and production out of all the songs
Watching Us Die Tonight -- this one's kinda cringy as shit but in an "aww that's cute dear" kinda way like a teenager who just got dumped for the first time. Flows really well and I think the arrangement is stellar

After finishing I gotta say I agree with @s_mcsleazy below that yeah this shit's cringe AF but, to be honest, so is basically everything I was listening to at the time. I'm super impressed that this album came out in 2008 and the first album since then in this kinda vibe that's sounded this good is Belmont's self-titled from 2018. How the hell did it take 10 fucking years for someone else to sound this good?

Side shill, if you dig the production but think the songs don't hold up, Belmont's self-titled sounds as good and holds up way better song-wise (though give it a few years and it might get old, we'll see).
Last edited by HarlowTheFish on Sat Jul 03, 2021 11:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

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s_mcsleazy
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Re: Scream Aim & Fire

Post by s_mcsleazy » Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:37 am

i could never make the BfmV jump. they always had good production but man, i couldn't get into the songs. something about them just made me cringe a bit.

early funeral for a friend is still good though. kinda cringe but in that "lol, so nostalgic" way.
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HarlowTheFish
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Re: Scream Aim & Fire

Post by HarlowTheFish » Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:49 am

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:37 am
i couldn't get into the songs. something about them just made me cringe a bit.

early funeral for a friend is still good though. kinda cringe but in that "lol, so nostalgic" way.
I'm pretty on board with this assessment, that's pretty much how I feel about them. There's a bunch of other stuff from this style and scene that maybe holds up better songwriting-wise, but in so many cases the production sounds like ass with the all-click drums and this fizzy noise on top that gives me migraines.

Never got into Funeral for a Friend, but I always hear good things -- where would you recommend starting if I was gonna check them out?

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Re: Scream Aim & Fire

Post by s_mcsleazy » Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:57 am

HarlowTheFish wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:49 am
s_mcsleazy wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:37 am
i couldn't get into the songs. something about them just made me cringe a bit.

early funeral for a friend is still good though. kinda cringe but in that "lol, so nostalgic" way.
I'm pretty on board with this assessment, that's pretty much how I feel about them. There's a bunch of other stuff from this style and scene that maybe holds up better songwriting-wise, but in so many cases the production sounds like ass with the all-click drums and this fizzy noise on top that gives me migraines.

Never got into Funeral for a Friend, but I always hear good things -- where would you recommend starting if I was gonna check them out?
Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation is the one to listen to.
offset guitars resident bass player.
'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'

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Re: Scream Aim & Fire

Post by HarlowTheFish » Sat Jul 03, 2021 11:32 pm

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:57 am
Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation is the one to listen to.
Okay yeah I got throw like half before I had to go do things and I gotta say this is actually really great stuff

To rephrase:
HarlowTheFish wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:49 am
Should have gotten into Funeral for a Friend, but I get why I always hear good things
Definitely gonna be going through the rest of their stuff over the next couple weeks, thanks for the rec!

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