Bloody Sunday
To Sentence The Dead
5.4
Accessible, sometimes moshy, sometimes melodic, and usually disposable, Virginia Beach's Bloody Sunday is Facedown's latest addition to the wide-encompassing field of "bad bands". On tour with Hoods, Donnybrook, and Since The Flood, undoubtably you'll be hearing more about them within the next few months.
What you'll get when you purchase To Sentence The Dead is Christian metallic hardcore in the vein of Terror and Cast Aside, but lacks the same momentum or creativity as either of those bands. The vocals definitely have a presence to them due to their low and limited range, but they also lack expression, a key element for this style. Riff by riff, it's not bad, but Bloody Sunday fail to string everything together in a successive and cohesive order. "The Best Of Me", for example, goes from melodic hardcore to a mid-paced part with gang yelling without any sort of segue. The moshy material is...questionable at best, especially when they preface a pull-off Slayer-esque part that comes way out of left field on "Dead Silent". It just sounds like they're going through the motions - there's an alarming lack of passion, like on the meatheaded "Fact Or Fiction". Overall, it's just nothing special for the majority of us out there. Still, they've got a really easily grasped sound, and as a result, I'll expect to be dogged by probably more than half the people who have heard this band.
There are worse things than being generic and boring. At least Bloody Sunday haphazardly stumble across a good riff once and a while, even if they do ruin it by playing something baffling and including too many group shouts. I'm sure some junior amateur hardcore kids in army hats will find their way into their fanbase, and everything will end happily. Meh.
