Scream Blue Murder - 'Rock Bottom' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Bury Me 2. Death Sentence 3. Friends Like Judas 4. Inside 5. Light It Up 6. Over The Line 7. Rock Bottom 8. The Anchor 9. The Void 10. Victims Of Violence

Most album starts are like waves in one of two ways. They can start gently, with small waves lapping at your toes while you watch the bigger waves heading towards shore. That is not how this album starts. This is the other type of starts - where a tidal wave of sound sweeps completely over everything and everyone it reaches.

When the intensity of the album lets up after the initial few straightforward Metal songs, it is replaced by a range of differing sounds and styles, culminating in a grungy Post-Rock groove of 'Light It Up' and heavy end of Pop-Punk in 'The Void'.

Sadly, beyond this point the album begins to tail off, with the last couple of tracks neither sustaining nor building on what had come before them. Which is a shame, given the bright start the album had given.

Another downside to the album are the lyrics. While some are complete earworms (to the extent that I found myself singing them forgetting completely where I'd heard them), in general they are a weaker part of the sound, without the depth or meaningfulness which bands such as Enter Shikari can put into their music.

Standout track - Light It Up

Rating - 3.5 out of 5 stars. It would have been more with a stronger ending.