Story of the Year open their latest album with title track Tear Me to Pieces and it hooks you right in, combining soft melodic moments with a catchy, upbeat chorus and heavy screams.
It pretty much tells you what you need to know about this album – and it’s all positive.
We move into Real Life which is another melodic start, but remains the same throughout, talking about relationships. As the song progresses it moves into an upbeat, almost pop punk sounding track but with occasional scream vocals.
Glow is one of my favourite songs on the record. It’s extremely catchy, with relatable lyrics to those who have significant others who ease their pain.
Dead & Gone is angsty and at times the vocals are akin to old Oli Sykes.
War is a track that is a complete earworm. It fits right at home for those who are fans of old BMTH as it sounds like it could have come right from their back catalogue but it lives rent free in my head and I’m not going to complain about that.
Can’t Save You’s switching between clean and scream vocals is absolutely flawless, as is the instrumentation which perfectly matches the tone of the vocals.
The chorus is also insanely catchy.
The band switch things up with the acoustic 2005. It’s the Story Of The Year version of Busted’s Nineties and is just as catchy, reminiscing about the year that second album In The Wake of Determination was released.
Acoustics continue with Sorry About Me’s opening verse. As the track progresses to the chorus, there is more of a drum beat introduced with the guitars kicking in, leading to a great riff after the second chorus.
Knives Out is another song from the album that lives rent free in my head. It’s extremely catchy and has a great breakdown section.
Closing track Use Me returns to the acoustic sound and is a beautiful piece, full of emotion.
Tear Me To Pieces is a more than welcome return from Story Of The Year. I don’t really need to tell fans of the band that they’ll enjoy this as it’s a given right from the get go, but if you’re someone who – for whatever reason – has yet to check out Story Of The Year, you’re missing out big time and this album will show you that.