I have a pet peeve about a lot of these "scene" bands: the fact that most of them are very talented individuals yet continue to put out some of the most substance-free music. British metalcore...or er..."deathcore" band, Bring Me the Horizon, is Exhibit A. Let me clarify that there is "substance" here -- there are guitar solos, tempo changes, gang vocals -- but there isn't substance. There's no authenticity; it just seems like the songs were built from a collection of "brutal" ideas written on pieces of paper, put together in a hat, and splashed out on the floor.

Example:

Paper 1: "Hardcore influenced" verse -- You know, for the circle pits.

Paper 2: Bass boom into breakdown -- Get your bandanas, kids -- you don't want the ninjas to kick dirt in your cute faces.

Paper 3: Whiny singing -- Hey, we're emotional too! Goddamn, we're so diverse.

Voila! You've basically been shown how a song that seems to have no structure or formula actually does.

What really kills me is that just when a song like "The Sadness Will Never End" starts off kind of interesting, the overuse of studio production tricks ruins it. There really doesn't have to be cool drum filters, bass booms and obvious vocal manipulation in every song; I promise. Why listen to me though, right? I am not in a band loved by thousands, but in my defense, it doesn't seem to take much these days.

Bring Me the Horizon is one of those band that will be popular now but will most likely disappear in the next two years, and If I was ignorant to the concept of logic, this might "beg the question": What the fuck is Epitaph thinking?