Gravity

Unlike Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin, Bullet For My Valentine wasn’t one of the bands that fundamentally shaped my taste in music, though it did influence it (see “Don’t Need You” for details). It wasn’t until I saw Bullet For My Valentine live that I really began to appreciate their music and listen to them seriously. This album isn’t nearly as heavy as some of their older albums, but that’s a trend that I’ve noticed in quite a few bands, and I don’t see that as a bad thing. Every album should be different, and Gravity is because of its softness. When I first heard the singles that Bullet For My Valentine released for Gravity, I was excited for it. I couldn’t wait for this album, and in all honesty, it lived up to my expectations.

1. “Leap Of Faith”- “Leap Of Faith”, at least for me, is a perfect representation of what this album will be. “Leap Of Faith” contains a few heavy moments, but for the most part, it’s rather soft or “normal” (for lack of a better word), thereby showing what to expect in the rest of the album. A lot of the songs are either softer songs or “normal” songs; few are truly heavy, but some of them do have their heavy moments mixed in.
2. “Over It”- This was the first song on Gravity that was released as a single and after my first listen, I was hooked. “Over It” has a nice mix of calm, melodic moments mixed with a handful of heavy moments, which is exactly what I would expect from BFMV. “Over It” is definitely one of my favorite songs on the album, in part due to the building emotion as the song progresses. About halfway through is when the build-up really begins and the final explosion of emotion is perfectly timed and adds to the song immensely.
3. “Letting You Go”- “Letting You Go” was the third song released as a single and it was definitely the one that I listened to the least. However, a few seconds into the song and I’m already loving it. Much like with “Over It”, the verses build up before exploding with emotion in the refrain. All in all, “Letting You Go” is a beautiful, melodic song that is rather calm for the most part, mainly meaning that it lacks a lot of the heavy moments present in some of the other songs.
4. “Not Dead Yet”- Of all the songs on the album, “Not Dead Yet” seems to have the most inspirational message, being “improve the world and make it a better place because you’re alive so you can”. And not only is the message pretty good, the song itself is very nice and pleasing to the ear. For me, I would probably rank “Not Dead Yet” up among the top of the list for the best songs on the album. This is a song that I really do enjoy for all of the different aspects that contribute to a a truly great song.
5. “The Very Last Time”- This is probably the softest song on the album. I know that BFMV is known for some pretty heavy songs, but this is definitely not one of them. However, it’s kind of refreshing hearing something so soft and emotional as opposed to it just being heavy and angry. “The Very Last Time” isn’t a bad song, but it definitely is different, and variety can be extremely enjoyable.
6. “Piece Of Me”- “Piece Of Me” is hands down my favorite song on the album (sorta), and it was also the second song released as a single. “Piece Of Me” has a lot of heavy moments, specifically at the beginning, mixed beautifully into the rest of the song. And in all honesty, it’s this mixing of heavy and light moments that give the song personality and make me enjoy it as much as I do.
7. “Under Again”- “Under Again” is very melodic; that’s the only word that I can think of that adequately describes it. It starts off rather calm, but it soon explodes with emotion before quieting down again, then exploding again. “Under Again” is definitely an enjoyable song, and it features a very nice guitar solo.
8. “Gravity”- “Gravity” has a very unique sound to it, and this sound is what gives it its charm. The verses are beautiful, as is the message of getting built up by someone before being torn down by them. Themes like this are what really made BFMV stand out to me, so it’s satisfying, at least to me, seeing these themes return in the title track.
9. “Coma”- “Coma” is very different. For the most part, the vocals and accompanying instruments tend to be rather soft and quiet, mainly during the verses, but this changes dramatically at a few parts. Early in the song, there’s a pretty heavy guitar solo, and as the song progresses, the refrain gradually gets heavier and heavier. It’s actually kind of cool hearing the song progress from a rather soft song into a much heavier one, and this is first previewed in the guitar solo early on. “Coma” is an enjoyable song because of this uniqueness and progression.
10. “Don’t Need You”- “Don’t Need You” was the first BFMV song that I ever heard. Back in 2016, BFMV first released “Don’t Need You” as a single. When I first heard it, the heaviness surprised me and kind of threw me off (my music tastes were still evolving at the time), but something about “Don’t Need You” just stood out to me. As time went on, I began to listen to this song more, and as I did that, I began to listen to heavier music, and as I did that, BFMV began to appeal more and more to me. Because of this, “Don’t Need You” holds a special place for me, and it makes me happy seeing it released on a full-length album. “Don’t Need You” is probably one of, if not my favorite, BFMV song, and for me at least, it perfectly encapsulates this band: a beautiful mix of heavy moments in a melodic song.
11. “Breathe Underwater”- I take back what I said about “The Very Last Time”; “Breathe Underwater” is the softest song, but at the same time, it seems to have the most emotion in it. And I think that it’s because of this softness, but in all honesty, “Breathe Underwater” is probably the most beautiful song on the album. “Breathe Underwater” is the perfect song for bringing Gravity to a close.

I enjoyed Gravity a lot when I first listened to it. I was pleasantly surprised with how “normal” the album was (I can listen to heavier music but sometimes it can still be too heavy for me). If you like hard rock or metal, I would highly recommend listening to Gravity; I for one thoroughly enjoyed it.