Album Review: Black Veil Brides - Wretched And Divine: The Story Of The Wild Ones

Despite its commercial viability, American glam's heyday wasn't exactly renowned for creative ambition. Girls, Girls, Girls was as 'conceptual' as Mötley Crüe got in the '80s, Poison were occupied writing lighter-waving ballads tugging at the heartstrings of teenage girls and Extreme were anything but.

Having transitioned from metalcore upstarts to glam heroes, Hollywood's Black Veil Brides evidently want to be considered serious artistes. Their third LP's concept piece details a dystopian future whereby a despotic regime drugs youth into becoming drones, but refugees inspire the kids to revolt. Somewhere, Nikki Sixx is livid he didn't devise the same idea 25 years ago. Dramatic, gothic orchestral flourishes are slotted alongside ballads and numerous spoken word cuts, but at times it feels like window-dressing rather than the touted rock opera. Remove these elements and at its core you get a collection of straightahead rockers. It's harder-edged and darker (Shadows Die, I Am Bulletproof) than much of the Sunset Strip's glory days and Lost It All revels in its own bombast. But although sometimes laboured (you've heard a lesser number of cheesy gang-vocal parts on NYHC records), when at their most lively and hook-heavy, hair-metal tragics and hairspray-boosted newbies alike will regularly raise the horns. When they're not adjusting their leather pants-bound package, that is. Devil's Choir and keyboard-laden In The End are arena-baiting anthems, New Year's Day's a mandatory live inclusion and Wretched And Divine could provide a radio breakthrough.

The interludes flesh out the story, but hinder overall cohesion. Black Veil Brides need to trim some fat, but at least they're prepared to utilise a modicum of brains amidst their lipstick-coated brawn.