While albums should never be judged on appearances, sometimes you receive a release which fails to help itself; Her Dying Regret’s ‘Legacy’ is one of those. Boasting a typically illegible logo, a moody band photo probably shot in an alley behind a kebab shop and a press release that discusses the album art more than the music, things didn’t bode well. Of course, these things are subjective and what is truly important is the music. So it’s a shame that isn’t much better.
Starting with the obligatory less-than-two-minute, instrumental track ‘Intro’ it then gives way to the riffing, roaring second track we’ve all come to expect. Her Dying Regret has produced a by-the-numbers metalcore release which features the usual suspects: heavy and clean vocals, breakdowns galore and silly faux-inspirational lyrics that sound like a gruff-voiced motivational coach is shouting at you. Song ‘The Shallow’ is positively bursting with these, including “how can we live when we don’t see that our time is running out” and “never give up, live your life”.
The second, third and fourth tracks are standard metalcore, with Oli Sykes ‘This is What the Edge of Your Seat is Made For’-era heavy vocals that even he has turned his back on, and clean vocals that sound like a budget Dallas Green (and are probably the only passable part of the whole thing).
Fifth track ‘Legacy’ is where things start to get interesting, as they throw in some Bullet for My Valentine-type riffs and melodic instrumentals into the mix, possibly to cover up yet more dodgy lyrics, such as “when you hear my fucking name or see my goddamm face, I hope you die a little inside”. Unfortunately, you can’t throw glitter on dogshit and call it a diamond and these needless additions only serve to distract from all the other terrible stuff that’s going on.
When you think things can’t get worse, closing track ‘The Filthy Truth’ contained a weird fusion of rapping and screaming, which while attempting something different, essentially sounded like aural rape. As if Her Dying Regret were unsure how to follow that, this song randomly closes with some gang vocals and chanting.
The bottom line is, everything on ‘Legacy’ has been done before, and it’s also been done better. Until someone reinvents the wheel (not you Ronnie Radke) there’s just no need for anymore generic metalcore releases. At least this one has only seven tracks.
0/5
‘Legacy’ by Her Dying Regret is out now.
Her Dying Regret links: Facebook|Twitter
Words by Jay Sullivan
