Life Lessons - The Albums That Inspired Us

We've been having a lot of people, interviewers, friends and fans, ask us what our musical influences were when we recorded Life Lessons. It's such a hard question to answer. The 5 of us all listen to different things, we all draw inspiration from different places. But, there are a number of songs and albums that I know we all share a love for, and know that we drew influence from whilst writing and recording this album. These are some of the albums that inspired me and some of the band when we were recording. But mainly me. This is my blog ain't it, if those guys wanna write about what influenced them they can start their own blog. Ahem. Sorry. I'll carry on.

The Ghost Inside - Get What You Give

Musically, we wanted to create something that was like The Ghost Inside but with a more metalcore edge. We wanted to production to sound similar to this record, as punchy and as huge as this record, as clean cut and defined as this record but still with a hint of rawness. I think we all collectively think of this as one of the defining albums within the genre, and this was an enormous influence on us both as we were writing and recording.

Underoath - Define The Great Line

My favourite album of all time. Hands down. Everything that they do on this record, the builds, the dynamics, the riffs, the melodies, the way the album paces along, everything is flawless. They are such a tight and clever band, but have such a rawness, an almost unpolished feel to them, and that completely adds to the punch of the album, adding a sense of unpredictability. I wanted to take parts of all that and implement it into our album, and there are hints of it running throughout.

Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache

One of the most perfect metalcore albums from that era. I think a lot of people, not just us, have this album on a pedastal as being one of the best, if not THE best metalcore album of all time. It has everything. Changes in pace, riffs for days, punishing vocals and soaring melodies, all accompanied by solid production and an almost perfectionist delivery. Killswitch Engage are one of our all time favourite bands, to say they had no influence on our writing would be a flat out lie. We grew up listening to them and learning their songs, our writing style has indirectly been shaped by them.

Unearth - The Oncoming Storm

Much like The End Of Heartache, this was another of the perfect albums from that era. A lot heavier and more unrelenting than Killswitch Engage, but just as riffy and technical if not more so, with breakdowns appearing all over the shop and with blistering leads where necessary. A lot of the breakdowns on this album were approached with a "what would Unearth do?" kind of vibe, and a lot of the breakdowns we feel turned out great as a result of that.

While She Sleeps - Brainwashed

One of the few torches keeping British metalcore alight, While She Sleeps made an absolute corker of an album with Brainwashed. The punishing pace, harsh vocals and raw punchy guitars were expertly balanced alongside enormous anthemic singalongs, exquisite melodies and harmonies and tasteful guitar decoration. We look up to While She Sleeps as an example of how to work hard and knuckle down, how to not give up and push for better things.

A Day To Remember - Homesick

The album that broke A Day To Remember is arguably their best, and that blend of catchy infectious pop punk and hard hitting metal isn't done half as well by anybody else. The perfect example of a metal pop band, structuring songs like pop songs with strong verses and memorable hook laden choruses, this album is essentially a masterclass in how to blend genres. We knew we wanted to put more singing in this album, and we knew we wanted to structure the songs better, and this album was the perfect example of how that's done.

Gideon - Calloused

We referenced this album a LOT when it came to the mixing process. The way all the instruments blend together and burst through the speakers makes the already heavy riffs sound even heavier. Everything has so much weight behind it, and none of the weight gets lost. You can hear every single instrument. We wanted that same impact from our recording.

Architects - Lost Forever//Lost Together

This album was nothing short of monumental when it first came out. Architects are a band we've all been following and paying attention to for years, but this was probably the heaviest and most brutally honest they'd been so far in their career. Both lyrically and musically, this was an album that really set Architects apart from the crowd. Adam is an enormous fan of Sam Carter, and the way he delivered his vocals on Lost Forever//Lost Together was a big inspiration to how he delivered his. Musically it was a huge inspiration too, pushing us to be creative and not do what everybody else is doing.

Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal

Similar to A Day To Remember, this album was a masterclass in song writing, but also at how to write structured commercial songs without wandering too far away from the sound you're known for. This was a perfect transitionary album for them, bridging the gap from the heavier side of them to the side we now know about from That's The Spirit. This was a great reference for us, for how to progress forwards without straying too far from the sound we'd already established. We also looked at how our songs would sound when performed live after seeing Bring Me The Horizon perform songs off this album in Cardiff, which greatly helped our writing and recording process.

Stray From The Path - Rising Sun

Stray are a very unique band, and almost nothing like us. They're like a blend of Rage Against The Machine and Every Time I Die. Basically they're Rage Against The Machine but even more angry and the world. Their drummer is an absolute powerhouse, and some of the drum parts on Life Lessons were inspired by a lot of the drum parts on this record. Not drums you'd predict, not drums you'd expect, but musically impressive and often unexpected drums.




Let me know if you can hear any of the above in the record! A couple of album reviews that we've had have picked up on a few of these influences, some have compared us to some cool other bands we didn't even spot. Just the simple fact that it's being listened to is amazing, so I'm beyond happy with anything we get compared to. Even if you compare us to 5 Seconds Of Summer. I don't know why you'd make that comparison, but I'd appreciate it all the same.

Regardless of whether you can pick any of these out or not, thank you so much for checking out the album, it means the absolute world to us.

Thank you for reading.


D.S
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