Blessed By A Broken Heart – Pedal To The Metal
Century Media
September 2, 2008

What It Sounds Like:  At attempt an combining 1980s glam and current metal.

In theory, we should have super fun record on our hands.  Some things meld together so seamlessly that it may make one wonder, “Why haven’t we already done this before?”  If you love two things, bringing them together creates a perfect storm of awesomeness right? (I’m pretty sure Blessed By A Broken Heart love to use the word ‘awesomeness’).

These metal dudes aim straight for the heart of hard rock, bringing the screams of Bullet For My Valentine and shaking hands with Def Leppard along the way.  However, all we come out the other side with is a phoned-in attempt at something halfway original, that ends up sounding not only unoriginal, but actually kind of lame in the process.

Music aside, these lyrics aren’t helping this band win any points.  I’d be scared to actually post the lyrics to Show Me What You Got or Move Your Body for the fear that you may stop reading right now, questioning my credibility and why I didn’t just toss this record out the window mid-way through those songs.  I understand that this band is supposed to be a party band, but when you’re singing lines like Throw your hands up / And wave them like you just don’t care / Do the robot / Like you were made from cylon hardware – it’s just too over the top for me to really enjoy coming from a hard-edged band (or any band for that matter; being harder-edged only increases the cheese factor).  The even larger misstep here than the lyrics are the extreme overuse of keyboard effects.  I know keys are a big part of the 80s, but when Blessed By A Broken Heart combine them with their metal, they sound more like a band trying to capitalize on the current dubstep movement than ones who actually want to play rock and roll.  The pop-element to everything is just too large here.  Add to that the horrific half-death growls of THIS IS HOW WE DO IT on the aptly titled Doing It, the lame factor is simply through the roof, and there’s no way to bring it back down.

There it goes.  Up, up and away through the ceiling.  Wave goodbye!

There’s a ton of filler here as well.   Blood On Your Hands?  Forgettable.  Don’t Stop?  It’s more of the same.

Dragonforce has already been there and accomplished so much of this territory.  It’s just not worth it to do half-hearted attempts at more of the same, with most of it being dialed down to not even be half as energetic.

There are exactly three tracks on this record that I actually enjoy:  She Wolf, She’s Dangerous, and To Be Young, the last of witch they push the 80s side much more than the metal side, and it works more to their benefit.  The rest of it may sound kind of fun on the surface, but after a minute, it’s simply too late.

All this being said, Blessed By A Broken Heart probably put on a fun live show, but this record is just too derivative for me to enjoy it as a whole.  I’m sure I’ll throw it on from time to time to revisit simply because it can be (and I struggle so hard here)…fun at times if you can push your conscious aside and try to obey the commands this band is aiming for (party!), but sadly…

…I do have a conscious, and overall, I just can’t do this.

3/10

If you had to listen to two tracks:  She Wolf / To Be Young