By Acadia Otlowski
The Black Veil Brides’ new album, Wretched & Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones, follows a favorite format of mine that seems to be characteristic of this genre of music. It is a series of songs with interludes that tell a story. This method of storytelling engages the listener.
The album opens with the song “Exordium,” which is only 25 seconds long and contains only four lines of lyrics with no backing music. The first line of the song and of the album is “The kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you”. This sets the theme of the album, explaining to the listener the song writer’s belief that God is everywhere.
The album transitions slowly from empty air to a soft piano rift, which then escalates rapidly with a yell from the lead singer to a fast paced song called “I Am Bulletproof”. This song features a great deal of rapid guitar work and more than a little screaming, making it one of the more intense songs on the album.
This transitions more commonly, changing to the song “New Year’s Day”, which has a march-like feel. The song builds with the lead vocalist singing about it being New Year’s Day, and starting new beginnings from this fact. The song gives me the image of a Phoenix evoked by the analogy of rising from the ashes.
“F.E.A.R. Transmission 1: Stay Close” is the first song in a four part series, which tells the story of a rebellion. It is a transmission from the government it seems, informing the populous to stay close to “fear,” saying that it is the only way they will survive.
“The Wretched and Divine” is the title song on the album and reflects many of the themes that have already been presented in the album. Lyrics like “A land where chaos reigns/Global Disturbia,/Bows down to twisted ways,” explains the song. I really enjoy the guitar work on this album. Most bands with guitar work similar to Black Veil Brides are much more hardcore metal than this band.
The next part of the four part series, “F.E.A.R. Transmission 2: Trust” tells the listener of the broadcast to trust “Fear” and not the rebels, because they are lying about the changes that could happen. In the third part of this, “F.E.A.R. Transmission 3: As War Fades” the transmission says that “fear” has been all but defeated, but it will be back. It promises that when war fades, the rebels will die and “fear” will come back. Fear is the controlling power in this album; it attempts to control the masses. But it seems in this message it has failed.
Between this broadcast and the final broadcast there is the song “In the End,” which was the song that had encouraged me to listen to this album in the first place. It opens with a chorus of what sounds like children and then changes to a rock style vibe, something that is very radio-ready without sounding overplayed.
Overall, I like the sound of the album and the nature of its storytelling style. It tells of a group of people that are diverging from the norm, coming together and inevitably forming a rebellion which eventually crushes the existing system. I have never listened to this band before, but I found this album very catchy and I look forward to seeing them in concert sometime soon.
