The Bleeding Alarm, led by vocalist Charles Furney, has a keen sense of what appealing to listeners really is. Backed by drummer Thomas Karanasos' unique drum rolls and slow breakdowns, The Bleeding Alarm creates music that can capture the hearts of listeners ranging from the pop punk scene to the post hardcore scene. Furney's soothing voice shows its potential in the song "Sorrow's the Seas of My Heart" as he creates a high-pitched tune in the chorus from a mellower one in the verse. In addition to Furney's lyrical guidance and Karanasos' beats, The Bleeding Alarm's guitarists play a unique sound in "Sorrow's the Seas of My Heart" that somewhat resembles the sound of Angels and Airwaves' music.
The band's new album Beauty in Destruction starts off with a unique 47-second track to create the sense of entering a different world in which The Bleeding Alarm plays its melodic and inventive tunes. The first track "Introduction" is an incorporation of strange guitar sounds and a solid bass riff, which to the listener creates a sense of entering a different dimension. "Introduction" then leads perfectly into the band's poetic and catchy piece of music, "This Girl Has a Gun." Starting off with a slow guitar intro, the song goes straight into a short verse breakdown where Furney's soothing vocals are brought out. In addition, throughout most of the song, the second guitar is playing harmonics, which gives the song its apparent depth. And I guess I forgot to mention the most pleasing part of the song--the chorus. Let's just say I was humming the chorus all day after I heard the song. I'd call that catchy.
The next song on the album "Oh Sweet Promise" brings something that most artists don't normally do: start the song with the chorus. With this, The Bleeding Alarm is able to create a verse that is much slower and once again brings out the soothing vocals of Furney. The only criticism I have is that the chorus is repeated so much that the song starts to get a little dull. But again, with repetition comes that idea of catchiness.
Soon after the album showed the potential of Furney's vocals in "This Girl Has a Gun" and "Oh Sweet Promise," the band decides to appeal to those screamo listeners. In "Remembering My Romance" and "Extinguish Ignite," the band incorporates screaming in their melodic verses. At first I didn't think the screams were up to par with the screams from other screamo bands such as I Am Ghost, but soon after I noticed that the screams were placed in the songs at the perfect spots to create the effect desired. Now that the effect desired is attained, it's time for Furney to work on his actual screams.
Melodies and unique guitar intros are how I characterize The Bleeding Alarm's new album Beauty in Destruction. The band creates choruses that stick in the listeners head for days and they craft musical genius with their instrumentals. In both "Amber and Ashes" and "Sorrow's the Seas of My Heart," backup vocals from lead guitarist Jens Madsen provide the depth to the already pleasant-sounding songs. Once again, repetition of the choruses is used, but unlike in "Oh Sweet Promise," the song doesn't get too monotonous and instead soothes the listener.
The 11th and last of the album carries the same name as the album itself. "Beauty in Destruction" is a decent song that is quite similar to "Sorrow's the Seas of My Heart." Slow verses in which Furney's vocals carry the listener into a tranquil mindset and a chorus that shows off Furney's talent of reaching those high notes. Personally, I don't think it was a wise choice to put as the last song to the album because it doesn't seem to act like a "closing" song. Even though it does seem to represent the band's music as a whole, I think "The Lonely," which sits at track 9, should have been the last song because its tremendously relaxing verses and chorus along with its amazing tune that never gets boring would be a perfect close to any album.
Frankly, when I first heard the name The Bleeding Alarm, I thought the band was going to be another ordinary screamo band that lacked melodic tunes. However, with pleasant-sounding guitar riffs and a more-than-decent vocalist, The Bleeding Alarm creates tunes that will appeal to any listener in the pop punk scene to the post hardcore scene. Even if you're not usually into that post hardcore music, just give Beauty in Destruction a listen. You may find that you'll be singing a couple of the songs to yourself like I did.
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K.H. '06 |
