If you’re looking for a solid follow up to Sworn In’s debut full-length, please do not look to their sophomore release, The Lovers/The Devil, to be a Death Card part 2. Unfortunately for the guys in Sworn In, this time around, their tendencies to experiment with varying rhythms and sonic contrasts didn’t quite line up as nicely as they did the last time.
While their first two EPs played around with their sound and self-proclaimed “emo” aesthetic, it wasn’t until Sworn In’s Death Card album dropped that people really began to pay attention to the Illinois quintet. Whereas Death Card‘s intricate rhythm patterns, diverging melodies, and screeching vocals made the group feel more like music majors who suddenly wanted to be in a quasi-hardcore band, The Lovers/The Devil feels more like a broad theatrical epic in serious need of an editor.
When the album’s first two singles hit the scene, “Sunshine” and “I Don’t Really Love You,” fans were instantly made aware of a change in sound. Choosing instead to take a much more mainstream metalcore approach, Sworn In introduced a heavy amount of clean vocals that both didn’t line up with the jagged guitar riffs behind them and couldn’t quite carry the needed notes. While older Sworn In tracks like “Mindless” found success melding a minimal amount of cleans with vocalist Tyler Dennen’s poetic shrieks, his untrained melodic vocals don’t always work in this latest release.
Almost every track from “Pins and Needles” to “Scissors” holds potential to be great, but gets lost in the overbearing need to introduce clean vocals. There is a blatant disconnect among many of the tracks on the album due in large part to the transition from raw to melodic, and it feels entirely out of place and distorting. Now, perhaps this was the intent of the album as a whole. The Lovers/The Devil is intended to be a concept album based on duality. And on Sworn In’s behalf, you do take away a strange appreciation after listening to the album all the way through. There’s a part of you that both loves and hates the anger and irony hidden behind the misplaced frivolity of the roaring track “Oliolioxinfree” and a part of you that loves and hates the fact that the dreaded lines “You are not my sunshine/Not my sunshine” (“Sunshine”) are stuck in your head all day.
The strange plays on nursery rhymes coming from what I can only describe as scratching, rhythmic noise paired with strangely sung choruses may not be pleasant to hear, but definitely gives you something to think about musically and concept wise. When the band says that the album is meant to be listened to front to back, they mean it. While I wouldn’t call this a great album, I would consider this one of the most interesting ideas and coolest twists on music as a post-modern art form. The Lovers/The Devil sounds more like a Jackson Pollack painting than an Andy Warhol because it’s all over the place, but still gives the listener a multitude of things to talk about.
From the unoriginal lyrics of “Oh sweet heart/Oh sweet heart/You’re breaking my heart” (“Sweetheart”) sung in a style reminiscent of Robert Smith to the cliché sci-fi electronics and bass line of “Sour,” Sworn In really threw everything they could at the listener and put themselves on display. The Lovers/The Devil is definitely not for everyone, and may even risk being too high of a concept for most people to enjoy listening to, but they definitely will not walk away from this album and have absolutely nothing to say. So, I give props to Sworn In for reaching so far out of the box, however, if they wish to further expand their fan base in the future, toning it down may not be such a bad idea.
While their first two EPs played around with their sound and self-proclaimed “emo” aesthetic, it wasn’t until Sworn In’s Death Card album dropped that people really began to pay attention to the Illinois quintet. Whereas Death Card‘s intricate rhythm patterns, diverging melodies, and screeching vocals made the group feel more like music majors who suddenly wanted to be in a quasi-hardcore band, The Lovers/The Devil feels more like a broad theatrical epic in serious need of an editor.
When the album’s first two singles hit the scene, “Sunshine” and “I Don’t Really Love You,” fans were instantly made aware of a change in sound. Choosing instead to take a much more mainstream metalcore approach, Sworn In introduced a heavy amount of clean vocals that both didn’t line up with the jagged guitar riffs behind them and couldn’t quite carry the needed notes. While older Sworn In tracks like “Mindless” found success melding a minimal amount of cleans with vocalist Tyler Dennen’s poetic shrieks, his untrained melodic vocals don’t always work in this latest release.
Almost every track from “Pins and Needles” to “Scissors” holds potential to be great, but gets lost in the overbearing need to introduce clean vocals. There is a blatant disconnect among many of the tracks on the album due in large part to the transition from raw to melodic, and it feels entirely out of place and distorting. Now, perhaps this was the intent of the album as a whole. The Lovers/The Devil is intended to be a concept album based on duality. And on Sworn In’s behalf, you do take away a strange appreciation after listening to the album all the way through. There’s a part of you that both loves and hates the anger and irony hidden behind the misplaced frivolity of the roaring track “Oliolioxinfree” and a part of you that loves and hates the fact that the dreaded lines “You are not my sunshine/Not my sunshine” (“Sunshine”) are stuck in your head all day.
The strange plays on nursery rhymes coming from what I can only describe as scratching, rhythmic noise paired with strangely sung choruses may not be pleasant to hear, but definitely gives you something to think about musically and concept wise. When the band says that the album is meant to be listened to front to back, they mean it. While I wouldn’t call this a great album, I would consider this one of the most interesting ideas and coolest twists on music as a post-modern art form. The Lovers/The Devil sounds more like a Jackson Pollack painting than an Andy Warhol because it’s all over the place, but still gives the listener a multitude of things to talk about.
From the unoriginal lyrics of “Oh sweet heart/Oh sweet heart/You’re breaking my heart” (“Sweetheart”) sung in a style reminiscent of Robert Smith to the cliché sci-fi electronics and bass line of “Sour,” Sworn In really threw everything they could at the listener and put themselves on display. The Lovers/The Devil is definitely not for everyone, and may even risk being too high of a concept for most people to enjoy listening to, but they definitely will not walk away from this album and have absolutely nothing to say. So, I give props to Sworn In for reaching so far out of the box, however, if they wish to further expand their fan base in the future, toning it down may not be such a bad idea.