{"id":5903,"date":"2016-03-17T13:12:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T13:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-the-word-alive-dark-matter\/"},"modified":"2018-03-22T23:30:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T23:30:00","slug":"album-review-the-word-alive-dark-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-the-word-alive-dark-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Word Alive – Dark Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheGiven how 2013’s ‘Real’<\/i> went off with more of a whimper than a bang, many would be forgiven for dismissing The Word Alive<\/b> as dead in the water. After all, their lower-tier metalcore peers have been having a rough time as of late. But instead of being complacent, the Arizona mob have weathered the storm and emerged with ‘Dark Matter’<\/i>, an album that is, by a country mile, their best to date.<\/p>\n

Going by this evidence though, it would be pretty inaccurate to describe them as a metalcore band anymore. Instead, ‘Dark Matter’<\/i> sees The Word Alive<\/b> home in on uber-slick arena rock with a thin outer coat of metalcore, a style that fits them like a brand new pair of skinny jeans. ‘Face To Face’<\/i> and ‘Oxy’<\/i> swirl with a power and grandiosity hitherto tapped into, while ‘Piece Of Me’<\/i> packs in more of a shade of My Chemical Romance-style theatricality.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

There’s still plenty of razor-edged ferocity though, such as ‘Grunge’<\/i> or ‘Sellout<\/i>, the latter of which becomes especially effective with Telle Smith’s paint-stripping screams. The only problem is that these moments can occasionally drift perilously close to devolving back into metalcore banality, as in the tepid ‘Made This Way’<\/i>.<\/p>\n

In reality though, ‘Dark Matter’<\/i> marks a bold new chapter for The Word Alive<\/b>, one where their \u201cpretender\u201d tag is ditched in favour of something much more representative of this newfound greatness. Because for an album that sheds any much-maligned genre tropes in favour of a genuinely exciting, melodic sound, there can’t have been many who’d have thought it’d be The Word Alive<\/b> to pull it off.<\/p>\n

4\/5<\/p>\n

‘Dark Matter’<\/em> by The Word Alive<\/strong> is released on 18th March on Fearless Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Word Alive<\/strong> links: Website<\/a>|Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Luke Nuttall (@nuttall_luke<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given how 2013’s ‘Real’ went off with more of a whimper than a bang, many would be forgiven for dismissing The Word Alive as dead in the water. After all, their lower-tier metalcore peers have been having a rough time as of late. 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