ALBUM REVIEW: This Bright And Beautiful World – Greyhaven
Few bands will ever leave such gaping holes in the landscape of forward-thinking metalcore and post-hardcore as THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN and EVERY TIME I DIE. Both were truly one of a kind, and to look for direct replacements would be to miss the point entirely. It’s bold then that GREYHAVEN nod so frequently to both on their third album This Bright And Beautiful World. The Louisville four-piece definitely aren’t shy about showing their influences, but, most impressively, nor are they dwarfed by them. Instead, they’ve produced a work of cohesive identity, balancing melody, ferocity and technical dexterity in roughly equal measure.
Of course, none of that should come as a huge surprise to anyone familiar with the band’s previous work. Both Cult America and Empty Black were of a similar quality – and drew similar comparisons – but This Bright And Beautiful World sees the four-piece leaning further than ever into the varying extremes of their sound. For starters, it’s arguably their most melodic work to date, as promised by the alt-rock-esque lead single All Candy. This one arrives second on the record as a whole, with opener In A Room Where Everything Dies coming first to put paid to any fears of the band ‘going soft’. It gets the album off to a raging start, tearing along with pummelling double kicks and a gigantic ETID-esque swagger.
As they did for Empty Black, GREYHAVEN have teamed up once again with producer Will Putney for this record. No prizes for guessing that it sounds practically perfect then, with Putney’s production capturing the album’s every nuance. At its heaviest, this record towers over its listeners with thunderous riffs, frantic leads, and Brent Mills’ ferocious vocals. Elsewhere, its moments of more expansive melodicism feel just as massive, such as on seventh track Fed To The Lights. This one’s another firm overall highlight, a dynamic offering that stands out even amid such invariable quality. Perhaps most impressive is that the band achieve all this with few to no overdubs, seeking instead to present a record that sounds just as it would in a live setting. It makes for an urgent final product, with ten tracks flying by in an almost infinitely re-playable 34 minutes.
While it doesn’t feel entirely fair to pick favourites on this record, special mention has to go to frontman Mills. Much like Greg Puciato and Keith Buckley before him, he cuts a compelling figure from start to finish here. There may be a theatricality to his performance, but his lyrics come from a place of painful reality. Most songs lean into the darker side of mental health, with tracks like album closer and recent single Ornaments From The Well providing poetic and powerful explorations of depression and what Mills describes as a descent into ‘endless hell’. It brings the record to a poignant close, with Mills asking “What did I find but blatant and towering death?” in another of the record’s more ethereal and dynamic cuts.
The rest of the band all bring it too; guitarist Nick Spencer is all over the place, his chaotic playing grounded by the weighty rhythmic anchor of bassist Johnny Muench and drummer Ethan Spray, as well as Putney’s impeccable production. All told, it results in what’s surely GREYHAVEN’s most accomplished work to date. This Bright And Beautiful World is the kind of record it’s impossible to get bored with. It holds a candle to some of the best to ever do it, but more than that it’s the sound of a band standing on their own two feet as they push themselves towards a future that looks very bright and beautiful indeed.
Rating: 8/10
This Bright And Beautiful World is set for release on April 15th via Rude Records/Equal Vision Records.
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