GREYHAVEN's third full-length is a meditation on despair and death. Chaotic metal reminiscent of EVERY TIME I DIE oscillates with slower, softer alt-rock like the crests and troughs of a wave. But there is no watershed moment where all the emotion comes to a head; rather, the ironically titled "This Bright and Beautiful World" explores various phases of depression without ever truly finding a way out. In this way, the album is an accurate depiction of what living with depression is really like: cycling through anger, frustration, monotony, sadness and hopelessness. As if approaching the edge of insanity, the intense dissonance of "The Quiet Shakes" is disorienting, echoing the lyric, "The room is spinning." Moments like this, as well as the somewhat out-of-step gang vocals in "More and More Hands" create lingering, eerie discomfort. When he's not screaming like a madman, vocalist Brent Mills delivers soft cleans with a Southern twang, at times sounding trancelike and even intentionally out of tune ("In A Room Where Everything Dies"). Lyrically, GREYHAVEN are quiet poetic, offering intriguing lines like, "The day that we died he started talking again" ("Ornaments From The Well") and "Diplomatic acts of love/ I'm cast into the sea/ Ripping departure, I am the rot" ("Foreign Anchor"). Each song depicts a kind of mental torture that seems practically inescapable, hence the heavy fixation on death and decay. But as interesting as this study of the mind may be, the listener is left yearning for some kind of climax that ultimately doesn't arrive. While "This Bright and Beautiful World" is an enjoyable record, and musicianship and eloquence are apparent, it is missing the more unexpected, exciting elements that make the difference between good and great.
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