THE LETTER BLACK | Pain | Album Review

Ah, look. It's a band that hasn't really put out any material in a long time, and whenever they did, it didn't do all of that much to leave a lasting impression. The Letter Black was once seen as an up and coming band in the scheme of rock with "Hanging On By A Thread", their debut album, which was actually not too shabby. I mean, yeah, this album wasn't the most original or mindblowing in terms of rock or especially Christian rock since they do have a religious side to them, but at least there were songs I could take away from the album as being competent rockers such as "I'm Just Fine", or the title track. Then, after being delayed for about a year came their sophomore release "Rebuild", which was a disappointment. Much of the stuff on that album was painfully mediocre, and only had a few tracks that really stuck out as decent on it, even though it is clearly not the worst thing ever. So, after this band spent three and a half years off of the face of the earth, here they are back again with "Pain", their third full-length, and this one sees the band going a little bit heavier than normal, as the band has stated that they had a passion for the more metal side and wanted to infuse that style in with their own style. There's only one problem with that for me, and that is the fact that it does not work... at all. 

I do believe that they had some potential to pull of a heavier style. After all, there aren't that many bands of their persuasion that are going this heavy, as bands of the Christian rock scene often be stuck in the middle in terms of heaviness or will be a bit more experimental, and if you are attempting to be heavier, you're doing more of a service to the Christian metal/metalcore side of things than you are with rock. But, this experiment had the potential to go in multiple wrong directions, and as stated, my instincts definitely did not let me down as this disc is a TRIAL to get through. The first track on this album, "Fear", definitely reveals that they definitely did go heavier with their sound, and the lead vocalist Sarah Anthony comes in with some off-putting talk-singing vocals that elevate to screaming vocals that are also terrible to my ears. There's also some sampling that's used throughout the song, including one near the bridge where the sample says "no one can hear you scream", which then escalates into a breakdown part of the song with screamed vocals, and it's really bad. I guess that one thing I can say that's positive here is that it kicks off the album heavy, and they definitely stick to their guns, but the problem is in the execution. 

If there is another problem that comes up during this album is the fact that lyrically this album is very dated and at times it's very cringeworthy. There are songs like "Last Day That I Cared" that could be a song basically written by anyone in any rock or metal genre and it would still be considered plastic, and there's also a track like "Rock's Not Dead", which is really a track in which I should deliver an opinion on very quickly. And that's that, yes, rock is definitely not dead. There are bands that prove that rock still has allure to it, and they are not making songs like this, where it's basically saying that rock is the only genre that speaks to hearts while other genres such as pop are all polished and are all just about trends and having 15 minutes of fame, and all of the typical cliche hogwash that infests a song of this nature. For one, none of this is even true. Yeah, you do have the typical pop stars that autotune their voices and force too much trendiness into their work, but that's not the full story of that genre as I'd like to believe there are good pop singers and pop artists around. And also, it's a bad move to consider rock the only genre in the world that speaks to people emotionally. I am really shocked that The Letter Black would even write a song like that and put it on a record because as an idea it is misconstrued as well as an elitist point of view. So, of course, this track gets thrown in the trash, and what makes it worse is that "Rock's Not Dead" is not even the worst track of this disc. 

We have tracks on this disc like "Kill The Devil" that I couldn't even make it through the entirety of the song because Sarah's screaming vocals are awful not just on this track but throughout this album. Now, I can see how this would work if they were done by another band or another artist who doesn't have as much of an insipid and irritating scream as Sarah Anthony does here. I mean, this is what takes the barely-even-noticeable quality out of every song that she does it in and yeah, I guess you could say that due to this being a heavy album, the screams are necessary, but this is clearly not the best avenue for it. And if that isn't enough, the tracks that make up the 12-track affair are mostly the same track with the same key of Drop A and mostly the same tempo. There really isn't any dynamic range to this album that makes it diverse from the pack. Whenever you consider tracks like "Meant For You", or even tracks that are really infuriating to get through such as "Breathe" or "I Am", the tone doesn't really shift throughout the entire album and all of these tracks blend together horribly. They just seem like one long song stretched out as one and it just comes across as painful. I'm really surprised that I made it through this album and I'm surprised I'm not lashing out and going full madman about this album. 

Surprisingly, this album does have some positives to it, and that's that the production of this album is fine. But, of course, it is Ben Grosse handling much of the work here, and even this is probably a weaker producing/mixing effort from Ben Grosse compared to other projects he worked on such as new albums from Starset and Dead By April. Also, there are two songs on the disc that I feel aren't necessarily AS bad as the rest of the album, one of these being the title track. And it's sort of a miracle that they didn't ruin the title track of the album because I feel like the title track of the album is crucial for those who utilize that for an album. This is one that is a little calmer than the rest of the album, and it doesn't do that terrible here. Track 7, entitled "Alive" is a saving grace for the album and it's the only song on this project that doesn't sound like everything else on this record. This is much more of a ballad track where Sarah Anthony's vocals actually work pretty nicely and don't immediately make you cringe, although it does seem out of place. Also, the final track on the album "Holding On", is a different sounding track and could be considered a tolerable listen, but this drags on for seven minutes, so it's just a track where you're not as peeved as you are with the other songs on the album, but you're just bored out of your mind and want to get it over with. 

Even with Christian rock albums in the past that haven't worked very well for me such as the most recent Emery disc or any of the band that have had radical sound changes such as Fireflight, Kutless, or Nine Lashes, there was at least some diversity going on when it comes to the musical side of things. While most of these were pretty generic or questionable, there were still highs as well as lows that carried the albums through. Even the other two albums from this band had more diversity than this album could beg and desire to have on it, while both of them weren't exactly masterpieces, especially the sophomore effort. This album, however, is a disc that has very, VERY little to offer in terms of diversity, the lyrics are mostly cookie-cutter save for one or two tracks, the songs all are too similar to each other and have no differentiation, and the vocals are absolutely awful, especially the screamed stuff. I really have no idea what to say other than this album is garbage. Absolute garbage. And people are saying that albums like Linkin Park's "One More Light" and All That Remains' "Madness" are garbage. Both of those albums are WAY better than this, and I actually gave good press to those albums. This album should be the one that people rant and rave about being an abomination, because it fails on nearly every single level to be edgy or alluring, and ends up being a massive trainwreck. 

RATING: 2/10 

What did you think about the record? Was it good? Was it bad? Let me know in the comments below. And of course, these are only my opinions. If your opinions are different, awesome! If they're similar, then that's great, too. So, don't hesitate- comment to me about it down below. Take care.