Album Review: Setyoursails - Bad Blood

Just last week I was talking about the new Venues album as being part of a specific sound prevalent in modern metal. Setyoursails is another band doing pretty much the exact same thing. They marry heavily down-tuned grooves with screamed verses and hooky choruses. It's a version of metalcore that has grown slicker, a bit more 'core', and decidedly more pop. If we think about life as being a bit bipolar, this style of music is the short cycle variety. The mood swings wildly from one minute to the next, and perhaps if we drew a picture of the highs and lows it would turn out to be a sound wave.

The big difference between Venues and Setyoursails comes in the energy level. While I liked Venues, I didn't find the melodies quite enough to overcome the bits I'm simply too old at this point to quite embrace like the younger crowd. Setyoursails music has just a bit more energy, which really pops through in the choruses. These songs have stronger hooks, more passionate vocals, and the combination is enough to propel me through the bits I'm less interested in.

Some of this comes down to vocalist Jules, who is able to scream in a way that has more personality than a mere bark, and whose clean vocals often have a gritty tone that sounds remarkably like Jaycee from A Light Divided, who happened to put out one of my favorite songs of last year. Obviously, that will start the band off on solid footing. Also, the variety of the harsh tones Jules uses is a boon, as the monotony of screaming is broken up with a wider range of tones. It might sound like a little thing, but it makes a huge difference.

Only one of the ten songs on the album hits the four minute mark, so the band is wasting no time in getting straight to the point. They cut out the extraneous bits, focusing on delivering their soaring choruses in between heavy hits of guitar. The brevity works to their advantage, not just because of the listening trends to today, but because the compact nature lets it hit hard. While it might be an easy complaint to say the record needs an extra song or two to feel complete, there's great skill involved in leaving the audience wanting more. This is the perfect amount of Setyoursails to feel satisfying, but leave a hunger that will come back in short order.

Whether we're talking about the title track of "T.F.M.F.", the hooks are so good I could easily hear them being staples of modern rock radio. The band has a knack for these moments, and it really is an evolution of classic metalcore. I remember what it felt like to see the audience singing along to the cathartic melodies on Killswitch Engage DVDs, and Setyoursails has that same kind of ability, just with a sound that leans more into pop. That's a good thing, by the way. It's the right music for this time, and certainly grabs my jaded attention.

Every few years, I like to step back and look at what bands have the potential to grow into the big new thing, the bands that will keep me interested as my old favorites slow down or stop completely. There is a short list of them, and with this album, Setyoursails is definitely on it. "Bad Blood" is the modern metal blend that throws everything into the pot, and somehow comes up with the perfect color to paint with.