Hawthorne Heights - Bad Frequencies (April 27, 2018) Album • Page 4

1. In Gloom - Short and sweet. It's a banger.
2. Pink Hearts - Catchy chorus! It repeats too much though.
3. Crimson Sand - The "screaming" made me hate this song, haha.
4. The Perfect Way To Fall Apart - Cool opening riff. The vocal melodies on the verses are awesome. Not a fan of the "screaming" on this one either though.
5. Just Another Ghost - This reminds me of SIBAW era HH, in the best way. This song rules. (And I can actually sit through the "screaming" in this one)
6. Bad Frequencies - I like the vibe of the first half of the song, but there's just too much "screaming" in this one...
7. Skylark - This one was fine. Kinda middle of the road, similar to Pink Hearts.
8. Edge of Town - This is really catchy one.
9. Starlighter (Echo, Utah) - Another real catchy jam. And fun fact: Echo is like 50 minutes away from me. Kewl!
10. Push Me Away - This one is fine. I'm just kinda lukewarm on it.
11. The Suicide Mile - The verses are cool. I don't really like the chorus though.
12. Straight Down The Line - This song rules! Solid.
13. Pills - The is another lukewarm one for me. It's okay. I do like the short bridge of the song though!

Initial favorites:
In Gloom
Just Another Ghost
Straight Down The Line

Initial least favorites:
Crimson Sand

 

I actually thought you would like this more than those song reviews seem to indicate.

 

It’s more credit than I’ve seen him give their latest releases lol. But it’s also only his first listen! Sometimes it takes a couple spins

 

I've always thought this band would do way better just ditching the screaming. Their music just never feels heavy enough to warrant it, and it ends up feeling a bit awkward.

 

NAILED IT!!!

 

This album could really do without the screaming

 

I definitely can see myself listening to it again, which is actually saying a lot. I'd give the album a 6.5/10 probably, based on just my first listen.

Yeah! I plan on listening to it again at some point, for sure.

EXACTLY! I would have liked this album a LOT more if there wasn't any "screaming" on it. I put "screaming" in quotes because the dude's not actually screaming. He's just gurgling his throat or something. When it sounds bad, it sounds REALLY bad and takes me out of the song. They just need to focus on their catchy clean melodies and move on from being "screamo" or whatever.

 

They use the screaming almost like back up vocals. Why not just do back up vocals?! They are a far better band than to resort to screaming and as you mentioned, they are not heavy enough.

 

I like the screaming on this one! I feel like it’s more natural than their previous unclean vocals.

Minus Casey of course

 

I think there is a fear that they will lose the extremely loyal fan base they have. They don't need new fans they just need the same people from 2003 to continue purchasing their records. Emery/silverstein are all the same way. You don't see these bands evolve much bc they want to keep their loyal fan base. Unfortunately a lot of these bands never reach their full potential but I also don't blame them bc If i were able to make music for a living like this and it meant adding screaming I would do the same thing.

I also just feel like they never get their production right.. like this is a small thing but why not double your rhythm guitar tracks with a different amp/guitar sound.. it would fill in the tone on the heavy parts way more. It doesn't bother me that they don't do it however I think they use these sort of high end guitars that don't make their heavy parts sound very full... which is why their catchy parts stick out way more. Just an opinion on how they can improve (I could very well be wrong, or have no idea what I'm talking about). I did enjoy the album a lot though and am happy for them if this sells well!

 

Totally agree with this! The guitars sometimes sounded like California by Blink-182. Just so thin. Double them up, pan them hard left/right, and it would sound so much better.

 

To be fair they did try no screaming right after Casey died. We got Fragile Future, which while I love that album was when a lot of fans sadly jumped ship

 

Emery did the same thing with "I'm only a man" but the reason people didn't like that album wasn't bc they got rid of the breakdowns it was bc the production was weak and the lyrics were poor... but after that they probably said they are gonna stick to their original sound throughout. "You were never alone" showed a lot of growth for emery IMO tho.. some of their most catchy/best sounding stuff.

I will listen to fragile future and see how I feel about it.

 

The screaming on this is really bad, never thought I'd miss Micah's screaming but here we are.

 

About to give this a second listen!

As I previously said, the standouts to me on first listen (not including any of the 4 pre-release tracks) were In Gloom, The Perfect Way To Fall Apart, and Bad Frequencies. Hoping to latch on to some additional tracks on repeated listens!

 

Ok, I have listened to the album three times and I echo a lot of things people have said. With that being said, it's an enjoyable album. I am not the biggest fan of the sequencing. I think it would have been more impactful to have Bad Frequencies as the opening song possibly and Pills just sort of drops off at the end and doesn't feel like a closing track.
A few songs I am still on the fence with are:
Crimson Sand
Bad Frequencies
Pills
Straight Down the Line

Right now it sits at about a 7/10 for me.

 

I’m happy to see the reception for this album is generally in the favorable. I love the album, and I am hoping it does really well for them

 

After first listen, I think this is probably their best record since IOYWL. It'll take a couple more listens for me to definitively say that, but there are a lot of standout tracks and they sound rejuvenated on this one. On first listen my favorite tracks are:

In Gloom
Just Another Ghost
Edge Of Town
Starlighter (Echo, Utah)
Straight Down The Line

 

My man.

 

I like it, it’s catchy, it’s very good, but not great. Like it was mentioned, I think there could have been some changes in production and I think the screams are “fine”. Plus like I mentioned before, there are some lazy lyrics. Overall I’d still give it a 7.5/10 and I know I’ll revisit it. The bulk of the songs are very easy to listen to and enjoy. It’s when I think about it too much that I start being too nit-picky.

 

First listen complete. 8/10 for me. It’s really refreshing for them. There’s more energy in their songs. Pure Noise is a great fit for them. Production is good. The screams are good. Most importantly, it wasn’t boring!

It reminds me of Senses Fail’s new album in a way. They should tour together haha.

Crimson Sand is my early favorite.

Can’t wait to listen to this album more. Perfect timing for summer.

 

This is growing on me... I probably would have stopped listening if it wasn’t for kevo lol. Just had my best listen by far

 

I am a positive influence sometimes

 

@Bad Frequencies mentioned some speculation a little while back that they may actually tour with Senses Fail possibly in the fall I believe?

Am I remembering that correctly @Bad Frequencies ?

 

They had teased it on Twitter a bit but so far nothing concrete.

They also said there are 5 songs they didn’t put on the album that they plan to release at some point