GENRE
Metalcore
RECORD LABEL
Jive CHART ACTION
Disc debuted at No. 4
REVIEWED BY Adam R. Holz and Bob Smithouser
Bullet For My Valentine
Scream Aim Fire
APRIL 2008
There's an occasional recognition of God and heaven. On "Deliver Us From Evil" frontman Matt Tuck seeks rescue and asks, "Will darkness turn to light? Can someone wake me from this nightmare?" "Say Goodnight" finds the singer uttering a tender farewell to the mother of his children, who appears to be terminally ill.
Death and dismemberment on the battlefield leave a soldier awaiting his turn to die on the fatalistic title track. That song and others spew the f-word, including the vengefully violent "Waking the Demon" ("There's no escape from the rage I feel/... Watch the blood flow"). We get more retribution on "Last to Know." The malicious "Disappear" includes the warning "Payback's a b--ch" as it relishes a victim's groveling and screams of agony. A request for the strength to persevere gives way to abject despair and what could be a suicide ("End of Days"). With similar resignation to a dark fate, "Deliver Us From Evil" surrenders, "So the world ceases turning/The tank is empty, let it dry." Enraged, Tuck turns against his own body on "Take It Out on Me" ("Self-harming mutilation cuts deep, but the pain feels so right").
Scream Aim Fire is a musical temper tantrum by a Welsh metalcore act too bitter to work through issues rationally. So we get hostility toward others, self-destructive nihilism and a vocabulary worthy of an explicit lyrics sticker. Cupid had better watch his back.
