Abandon All Ships stick to their guns on new album

Trancecore titans Abandon All Ships have never been a very traditional band. Their electronica infused metalcore has always been a tad out there, but that is the band's charm. On their debut album, Geeving the band had songs about religion and heartbreak mixed in with hip hop and dance influences. Their second album Infamous follows the same road. While the first single and title track was terrible on first listen it has now become a guilty pleasure of mine. The great thing about Abandon All Ships is clean vocalist Martin Broda's parts. The ballad "August" features Broda singing about a love gone bad and the regret he feels over it. While his vocals are Auto-tuned as fuck they are still emotive and as somebody who has seen this band live I can tell you that Broda is the real deal. The Auto-tune is more of a trend their following than a necessity.
The songs on this album for the most part aren't as memorable as their last record. Almost every song is about relationships gone sour. While the screams of Angelo Aita during most of the verses are good, Broda's clean vocals take the songs to another place. "You don't hear my prayers to you, when will be be together?" Broda sings on "Less Than Love," Broda sounds vulnerable and about to break while Aita takes care of the anger on the song. On the album opener "Good Old Friend" the band provide the listener with a good picture of what the album will be. Harsh screaming with a touch of clean vocals. Broda's sung bridge is the highlight of the intro. "I'd rather walk with you in the darkness of the night, than walk alone with no one lit up by the light. I wanna feel you when theirs nothing left inside, fuck whatever they say girl, this moment feels so right," Broda sings during the bridge. If the band had more of Broda and less of Aita the songs could be so much better. The breakdown at the end of the title track is further evidence of how Aita should be cut back. "If you don't like us, fuck you. Forever Lonely Crew. FLC ain't running. UO is rising. You're with us, or against us. AAS is coming. New York's running. LA's running. Yeah, you should be fucking scared.
Toronto's coming," Aita screams pointlessly over a crushing metalcore breakdown. The song could have used more of Broda and his clean vocals.
The band have also changed their song content on this album. Their previous album and EP featured religious lyrics. Songs like "Take One Last Breath" and "Megawacko" featured songs about their faith. Infamous has none of that and for some people that may be a hindrance for the band, most will probably be glad that the band rid themselves of their cheesy religious lyrics.
Abandon All Ships stand out over many of the dance filled metalcore bands and if they want to continue to stay that way they should have more clean vocals in their songs. The clean vocals contain so much more emotion than the screams.