“I find myself at peace even when I sin.”
It comes as a subtle surprise that The Word Alive‘s latest record, Hard Reset, would be one of the more obtuse listens to release this month, coming from a band who made their name with scene-tinged post-hardcore bangers a decade ago. Shifting gear with arguably their best material on Dark Matter and later single “Misery“, it has been a gradual downward trend for the creative aspect of the American quartet, even as they have grown in popularity.
Opening with a track titled “The Word Alive is Dead…” makes it very evident that The World Alive set to move themselves on from previous material with this record, aptly named Hard Reset. It’s difficult to get more on the nose about it, which may have been a strength if the album evolved their sound in a positive direction. As the opening lines “It’s not the end / tell a friend / soon the show begins” lures the listener in, it does present the grandiose sentiment that maybe The Word Alive have one more trick up their sleeve.
Entering early with the title track, The Word Alive show they’ve moved on from the depths of previous material, although it remains firmly within the fairly well-known metalcore structure of harsh vocal verses followed by clean choruses. “Hard Reset” and “Strange Love” show early on that with much too-tidy production that the group’s sonic evolution, whilst an apparent departure from their earlier material, is headed in a somewhat safe direction. This, ultimately, leads it to lacking any of the bite, substance, or charm of its contemporaries.
In line with this comes the first of many features, with “One Of Us” featuring Bad Omens‘ Noah Sebastian. A neatly piece together tracked, with some nice hooks, the feature here is massively underutilised; with Sebastian‘s creative, production, and undeniable vocal chops, the passable verse on offer here fails to elevate the track to anything beyond merely ‘good.’ “New Reality” acts as filler between the features of Sebastian and Julian Comeau of Loveless on “Hate Me“, with very little of note present. However, “Hate Me” is a highlight of Hard Reset, injecting some pop groove into the record and a feature that blends itself nicely with some funky bass-lines.
Again, however, Hard Reset pulls itself with “Slow Burn“, one of the few cuts including “Invisible Army” that should have been left on the cutting-room floor. The somewhat hand-in-face lyrics of “I’d still burn if it meant you’d love me” and “To them you’re just invisible / you’re right here facing your fears” on the respective tracks feels both rather forced and juvenile. Given the lengthy runtime of 49 minutes, particularly for this style of core, there was plenty of space to refine and cut down the record that simply wasn’t done, leading to filler tracks with nothing to offer detracting from the overall experience.
Slightly over the half-way point, the third of five features comes from Craig “Smart Car” Mabbitt on track “Fade Away“. With this and later features on “A New Empty” and “War With You” (Normandie and From First To Last respectively), The Word Alive have made some strong choices for collaboration across Hard Reset, and these tend to be the consistently better tracks on offer.
In between these flashes, however, navigating the closing stretch feels somewhat drawn out and tedious, with the trio of “Invisible Army“, “Static Rain”, and “Nocturnal Future” being merely serviceable; besides a quaint solo, there is little that stands out. The aforementioned closer, “War With You“, does fortunately allow Hard Reset to finish on a higher note, even if the record’s crescendo-style closing stretch does feeling slightly forced.
With Hard Reset, The Word Alive have certainly improved on the extreme low-point of 2020’s MONOMANIA, which feels like half the purpose of this record. Yet, there is little that is particularly memorable, often leaning on features to hit the highs that previous solid records had achieved on their own merit. While this may be the first of a resurgence, it’s difficult to see how The Word Alive navigate themselves back to where they once were with such indifferent material.
4/10
Hard Reset is out August 25th via Thriller Records, and be pre-ordered here.