Artist: Black Veil Brides
Album: Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones
Genre: Rock
Label: Lava/Universal Republic

Well, this is obviously not Social Distortion meets Metallica. Not that we ever expected it to be. I don’t mean to imply that I approached this album with anything other than an open mind, but I will admit that as a band Black Veil Brides puzzle me. They’ve deliberately manufactured themselves to be the ready targets of hatred and ridicule from that calibre of fandom that insists on one looking and sounding a certain way in order to be taken seriously. That’s fine in one sense. There’s nothing wrong with drowning yourself in face paint and the entire contents of a bottle of hairspray (although the latter suggests that pyro at shows should be kept to a minimum). People can express themselves whichever way they like, even if it makes them look patently ridiculous. But if you want to be taken seriously, you have to give people a reason to care about you. And this is where BVB fall down. Their visual aesthetic is the only thing making them distinctive or memorable, because their music is exactly the same as about 4,000 other bands in the scene. One could applaud their imaginations or their ideas if they actually offered anything new or interesting, but they don’t, which makes them somewhat doomed to be known as that band put together from the leftovers of Eric Draven cosmetics and Aiden’s discarded wardrobe. I’m tempted to praise the idea for Wretched and Divine, if only because few bands in their genre seem to have hit upon something as wantonly grandiose as this, but the sad truth is that there’s nothing worth celebrating here. The songs are fine, but they don’t make you shudder or wonder or think or really care. You have to seize and shake your audience if you want them to sit through this – your existing fans will anyway – and there’s really nothing here that will make that kind of impact.

Of course, for those existing fans, I’m sure this will be a treat. It’s an excuse to make a feature length music video using deleted scenes from The Crow sequels, so that’ll keep the youths parting with their parents’ money for a while. The band use a Biblical quote in the overture (“Exordium”), but the same one was in the film Stigmata, so no props there. My main issue with the music is that the songs are largely cut from the same well-oiled cloth and blur into a compendium of insignificance, but on a more general note, the album does precious little to evoke its own narrative. It’s supposedly about warring factions but there’s nothing belligerent in the music and somehow, you end up rooting for the villain guy reading out the interludes. Incoherency is a trait of which many concept albums are guilty, but there’s simply no divergence in mood or structure that would help to coax Wretched and Divine’s story along. The tracks stick to a template formula that never allows for excitement or mystery to creep into the fray. When your story’s about a group of rebels (the titular ‘Wild Ones’) defending themselves against the dreadfully-titled ‘F.E.A.R.’, this is somewhat unforgiveable. “I Am Bulletproof,” “New Year’s Day,” and “Wretched and Divine” are surly, musically lively pieces with broody verses and lean, destructive choruses. Biersack has decent presence but the air barely changes throughout – the mechanical heroics never conjure much imagery or mood and give way to meaningless, duelling solos that for all their hysteria never inject much excitement. They’re not bad songs per se, but they don’t do anything to make you give them a second glance. The basic air of fiery defiance never changes and remains undimmed by anything the spoken-word “F.EA.R. Intermissions” offer. “Shadows Die” is slightly more troubled, employing a few eerie sound effects in an attempt to diversify the music. It’s very charged and rattled with a giddy, nightmarish vibe but still lacking on heart, the big chorus an ineffective anchor for a deadpan and lifeless track.

What deviations there are usually take the form of foamy sentiment, light on substance and heavy on cliché. “Resurrect the Sun” retains the stroppy verse/unleashed chorus motif but the former comes soaked in maudlin string instruments. It’s a bit more thought-out than the others, giving it the air of a pre-intermission declaration of defiance (you know, like Scarlett O’Hara’s “I’ll never be hungry again” except that comparison makes no sense and I’m going to hell for it). Sure enough, the “Overture” follows. The violins sound a bit out of tune, but said tune does a decent line in frayed tempest, so it works. A distant, echoing piano informs the saddened musings of “Done For You,” whose change in tempo and air is so drastic that it does immediately grab attention. There’s a touch more sincerity to it, even if the warbling backing chorus makes it sound like a pop ballad. “Lost It All” takes an utterly deranged detour through soul but “In the End” offers a bittersweet resolution, a sense of occasion and consistent electricity giving it more power than the rest of the album combined.

Wretched and Divine works for the fanbase, but its arcade machismo is unlikely to do anything to advance the band’s name. It may be that the accompanying film Legion of the Black makes the story clearer but musically, this lacks imagination and detail. No doubt the firebrand attempt at heroics will enthral you if you’re an existing fan, and enjoy, but the rest of us can sit back and watch this sail idly by.

SCORE: 6/10
Review written by Grace Duffy

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