Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Eighteen Visions - Eighteen Visions (2006)

Anytime you hear a different song with basically the same formula with not much variation, it is often quite problematic, though a few bands like DragonForce do it quite well. For the 2006 self-titled album Eighteen Visions, it's pretty bad. The album's not as bad what most longtime fans think of it, but it's definitely worse than Obsession and even Yesterday is Time Killed. The dark emo-core fashion the band has taken on aesthetically is quite cool, though as cliche as the music...

The goal for this album seems to be to make fist-pumping anthems, and that's out of the question when their sound is soften to just hard/alt-rock. This drop from heaviness seems to mirror what Rise Against did with their own album that year, and probably a much deeper drop too.

"Our Darkest Days" already kinda proves that as a slow soft march. Interestingly, it's a perfect anthemic start with ambient leads making way for layered gang vocals, "We must escape our darkest days". And when the verse marches through, it's much different from the poor formula later on in the album. That definitely sets my mood well! "Victim" is the fist-pumping anthem the album was supposed to be going for. It's a strong heavy banger with hardcore energy to surpass AFI. Truly the strongest piece here!

Unfortunately, after those two highlights, that's where the quality drops, and the remaining songs are so awful that I'm not up to mentioning here. Except for "Coma" with its heavy riffing. That and the catchy gang vocals save it from becoming another weak sh*tter.

Eighteen Visions' early 2000s albums are so amazing and heavy. The sudden turn-away from all that killer glory has surprised many fans, some in a good way, some in a bad way. For me, it's the latter. The song structures don't have much original variation, with only the gang vocals and small increase of heaviness in the songs mentioned above getting their money's worth. If they weren't so focused on 80s rock, despite the cool aesthetic image, they would've had a less lame end of their initial career....

Favorites (only songs I like): "Our Darkest Days", "Victim", "Coma"