

That is, of course, when such categories can be so easily outlined, and they don’t fall into generic melodic metalcore mush like what’s effectively the case on this album’s entire second half. Here, I Prevail seem content with slapping together whatever they can that culminates in a total mess that takes whole new inroads into derivativeness, whether that’s entry-level nu-metalcore on Bow Down and Gasoline (the latter especially trying to nab the Beartooth crowd with its opening coughs and heavy focus on quick, staccato punches), Hollywood Undead-esque rap-rock banality on Rise Above It and DOA, and even a detour towards butt-rock balladry on Every Time You Leave to ensure all crossover bases are covered.

It’s the sense that they believe that Trauma is some grand, boundary-pushing statement that’s the most peculiar as well, as not only has every single sound on this album been done exponentially better multiple times over, but it’s at least been made to sound purposeful in its execution.
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Sure, they’ve added a bit more to their arsenal, but rather than diversifying things for the better, they only serve as further proof that I Prevail have no earthly idea of how to get anywhere with what they’re doing. And if this was just another generic, blank-faced metalcore album, it’d still be bad but at least it’d be easy to ignore instead, I Prevail are shooting for the stars of mediocrity and hitting the ground with a true turd, abiding by every hollow stereotype of early-2010s metalcore that’s aged about as well as a pint of milk in the Sahara and – naturally – falling flat on their faces. Here, I Prevail only continue to reinforce how bankrupt of ideas or deeper emotion they really are, opting to tread water so profusely that even then they struggle to stay afloat, and only wind up sinking with the rest of the metalcore jetsam where they so desperately belong. Granted, it’s not really a surprise that they got away with it in 2016 when this sort of metalcore truly was on its last legs much to the chagrin of those who’d been profiting off it the most, but it’s hard to see how Trauma could reap similar rewards for them, lest they morph into an Amity Affliction-esque embarrassment with no self-awareness of how truly awful they are.Īnd let’s not beat around the bush here – that’s what’s happened. Coupled with their willingness to shill themselves out for whatever greater gain they could get (you couldn’t escape their promoted Facebook ads at one point), I Prevail quickly outlined themselves as a band looking to play the game to reach success and did so unashamedly. Rarely did it extend beyond blunt, thudding metalcore tropes a good few years out of date, but the band never did anything even remotely interesting or different with them, and instead felt content to wallow in their own mediocrity that so many others attempted to paper over for them.

They’ve already been rinsed plenty for their awful rendition of Taylor Swift’s Blank Space that broke them, but as a debut album, the amount of praise that Lifelines garnered on the whole was absolutely baffling. It’s not a controversial statement in the slightest to say that I Prevail never deserved to get as big as they did.
