Attack Attack! The metalcore band delivers their third full-length album through Rise Records produced by frontman Caleb Shomo himself in his home studio and not by the well-known Joey Sturgis who did their first two albums. This is the first album without clean vocalist Johnny Franck as Caleb Shomo takes over both duties as screamer and clean vocalist. Although this album has the anger you would want and expect from these guys, This Means War doesn't have enough diversity and creativity for the songs to stand out on their own.
"The Abudction" and "The Family" are the heaviest and shortest tracks on the album with all screaming and no clean vocals. "The Eradication," "The Motivation" are the most diverse providing with a little bit of something different, from the toms in "The Eradication" to the piano led intro in "The Motivation." While "The Wretched" being the best track on the album that stands out the most from the drum rolls to incorporating the synth more and finishing it off with the piano. However with the rest of the album, all the choruses and the breakdowns are the same but you keep listening in hope of hearing something different.
Caleb Shomo does deserve a lot of credit for trying to produce this record on his own, something that is no simple task of doing. It would have been helpful though if he would have gotten some outside help/advice. I personally miss Johnny Franck's clean auto-tuned voice that made the songs catchier and smoother, but that doesn't mean Caleb Shomo can't sing. The lack of diversity and creativity not just with the music but the lyrics as well just makes this another album, but if you are a fan of Attack Attack! then you should surely listen to it.
I give this album a 6.5/10
Listen to - The Wretched, The Motivation, The Betrayal
Review by Sean Graham
Djent Bandwagon
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