I know this band has a lot of haters. I'm curious what people here think about them. Their new CD, Scream Aim Fire, came out yeterday and I think it's pretty good. The vocals have a little bit of a British whine and can be a little irritating, but there are some really good riffs and drum parts on it.

I kind of place them among A7X, Trivium and Atreyu in the sense that they are taking metal with a thrashy feel to it and, to varying degrees, blending it with commercial pop sensibilities. That said, when I compare Scream Aim Fire with the most recent CD from each of those bands (S/T, The Crusade and Lead Sail Paper Anchor, respectively), I think BFMV is doing it a lot better and making it a lot more interesting.

That's why A7X and City of Evil, no matter what they do and what people say, will always have a place in my heart. Metal was the music of my youth and when I left home for college, I met a lot of people into a lot of different things and, as I got exposed to other types of music, I kind of drifted away from metal. When I heard a radio-edit of Bat Country on a free CD sampler, I decided to check City out and I loved it. I didn't know anything about A7X before that, so I didn't have any expectations or anything like that. After City, I started thinking maybe I've been missing out on something and that led me to much heavier and/or darker stuff.

That said, their recent S/T CD is very mediocre (though I'd rate it higher than the 2 it was given in the user review lol). If you ask me, they went a little overboard with the pop influence. Plus, Shadows really needs to cease and desist with the political commentary. I don't mind hearing views I disagree with and I don't mind musicians and artists in general expressing political viewpoints through their work, but Shadows really comes off as ignorant and uneducated, especially in that song Critical Acclaim. But again, I am very grateful to this band for bringing me back to metal.