Album #14; 'Black Veil Brides' - Black Veil Brides

Arriving at the countdown at #14 is the self titled release by Black Veil Brides, their fourth full length studio album. Personally, I was really excited and had high expectations for the album after the release of 'Wretched and Divine' last year (which slotted at #2 on my end of year list last year), and while I'm sad to say it's nowhere near the expectations, and nowhere near the caliber of W&D from last year, it's a solid rock album nonetheless, and manages to slot in at #14 this year.

'Heart of Fire' is the first track, and is so far the biggest hit off this album on the radio, and rightfully so, it's a great demonstration of what BVB is good at and has done for a long time. 'Faithless' is my personal favorite off this album; with a haunting intro that truly has an Avenged Sevenfold-esque aura to it, and then a wonderfully hard guitar riff to follow it up, it's truly the strongest offering on this release.

One thing I will commend on this release is that it seems that Andy is willing to return the screams of old and exemplifies that quite well on a couple tracks on this album, 'Stolen Omen' being the best example of this. Overall, however, this album feels almost rushed to me, like it could've been given a couple more tweaks before it was released. It seems that they had too many songs written for W&D, and decided to take the extras and expand them into a second album.

They've had two straight years of releases now, and I've seen both the supporting tours for each album. The first year, they played almost the entirety of W&D; this year, the only played 3 songs off this album, and I think that's a very good indicator that the album isn't nearly as strong, whether it's live or in studio.

Tracklist (favorites in orange, just like everytime):

Heart of Fire - 3:21

Faithless - 4:48

Devil in the Mirror -3:30

Goodbye Agony - 4:09

World of Sacrifice - 3:30

Last Rites - 3:33

Stolen Omen - 3:47

Walk Away - 5:57

Drag Me to the Grave - 3:45

The Shattered God - 4:03

Crown of Thorns - 3:39

That's #14! Seems #13 is next, eh?