6 Key Things Bullet For My Valentine Need To Do To Save Their Fanbase

By Scott Tailford /

This must be what it felt when those who grew up on Metallica€™s initial output first looked upon their bluesy Load-era work. All subdued compositions, guy-liner, haircuts and rockstar pomposity, it appeared the world had gone mad, as back then one of the biggest €˜underdog€™-bands on the planet got a taste of stardom and took their punk-rock attitude of rebellion to new heights. Back to Bullet though, and although the comparisons between the two end there, the feeling of €œwhat has happened to these guys?!€ is a strong one, especially when taking new single Raising Hell as indicative of what the band are capable of when they realise they€™ve gone too far down the pop-route on last year€™s Temper Temper. Bullet remain a band that I find it impossible to give up on, primarily due to an abundance of perfected live shows and little glimpses of what they€™re capable of awash a tornado of disappointing latter-day output. For every throaty scream powered by a thunderous instrumental section, commanding the banging of heads like that of Breaking Point€™s intro, there are horrifically syrupy ballads such as Bittersweet Memories and Dead to the World, bringing the whole band€™s discography down. That€™s not to mention the extremely plaintive delivery of already subpar lyrics that whilst they make the band easily accessible to a mainstream audience, are genuinely laughable for the rest of us (Check Saints & Sinners, the aforementioned ballads, or just anything from Temper Temper if you want to have a good ol€™ chucklefest). I write this as a huge fan of the band, although I don€™t think being such a thing means blindly defending everything they put their name to, therefore the following are a summation of talking points I€™ve heard everywhere from online forums to CD aisles in high-street stores since their latest full work dropped in February.