A Well Constructed Album

Breathing Theory is one of my favorite bands, so I was quite excited when I opened Spotify one Friday and my Release Radar informed me that they had a new album out. After listening through the album, I have quite a few thoughts, but before I get into them, I think I should provide a little background on the album.

Breathing Theory is a hard rock band, and they’re a smaller artist. Their most popular song, “Empire,” has under 1.5 million streams on Spotify (and I firmly believe that I am a large number of those streams). “Artificial” is the band’s second full album, and I personally like it quite a bit more than the first. While I still think that “Uprise Pt. 2” is the band’s best collection of songs, I think that “Artificial” fills a solid second place. My biggest complaint with the album is that over half of the album were released ahead of time as singles. While I don’t mind a band releasing a single or two to promo the album, I don’t like it when the album drops and I’m already familiar with the majority of it. Nevertheless, let’s break down the album and what I like about it.

“Replicas” is the first song on the album, and it was the second single released. The song fits into the middle ground between heavy/harsh and soft/acoustic. The song uses clean vocals throughout, and it’s a solid hard rock song. I think that the most interesting part of the song occurs after the second chorus when the song begins to use a robotic voice. It presents an interesting meditation on what it means to be a human or a machine. Overall, while I enjoy the song as a good example of hard rock, it lacks some of the really gripping moments or musical choices present in some of their other songs.

“Beautiful Disaster” was the third single released. This one is a bit heaver than “Replicas,” and it still uses clean vocals, though it sometimes features harsh vocals towards the end. I really like the verses of the song because they start slow and build emotion that the chorus can then explode with. It creates a really nice dynamic that I appreciate, as the rest of this review will emphasize.

“Collapse” was the first single released, and initially my favorite of the singles. It’s definitely one of the heaviest songs on the album. Just like with “Beautiful Disaster,” I really like the dynamic between the verses and chorus as it starts heavy, gets a bit softer, then ends heavy again. The chorus is my favorite part. The repetition of the lyric “Collapse with me” just sounds really cool, especially at the end when it is at its heaviest.

“Your Frequency” was the fourth single released. The beginning is very soft and melodic, and this tone and style persists throughout the rest of the song. While I enjoy the song and think it’s good, I would say it’s probably the weakest song on the album. I really like the verses and their build up, but the chorus isn’t as epic or interesting as “Collapse” or “Beautiful Disaster” in my opinion.

“The Cure” was the sixth and final single released, and of the singles, it was my favorite. The tempo of the verses sounds really good and provides a perfect build up to the chorus. The chorus then uses a similar tempo at specific moments, and it sounds fantastic as the verses and chorus mirror each other. Even though the song is rather simple lyrically, I think it works really well because my favorite feature of the song is how the lyrics are delivered.

“Transcend” is the first new song on the album, and it’s easily the heaviest. The verses remind me a lot of “Parasite” and some of Breathing Theory’s other earlier work. The song gets more melodic and clean in the chorus, and I think it’s one of the better choruses on the album because you can really hear the emotional delivery in the lyrics. The song also features a really nice instrumental solo before ending perfectly with the chorus.

“My Cancer” is the acoustic song on the album, and I really like it. Since the song is acoustic, and therefore softer, there’s an even greater focus on the lyrics. As a result, there is a bit more lyrical play with rhymes and emotion. Just as with “Transcend,” I really like the emotion present in “My Cancer.” The end is especially emotional. While I would classify most of the album as sounding cool or epic, “My Cancer” is a beautiful song.

“Tethers” is the last song on the album that was first released as a single. When I first heard it, nothing really stood out to me, but my appreciation of it has grown. “Tethers” is another really good instance of build up between the verses and the chorus. The very end of the verses/beginning of the chorus features a nice display of emotion that I really like. Overall, the song isn’t bad, even if it isn’t my favorite song on the album. It has some really good moments, such as the third verse. It also features some interesting backing choral singing

“Separate Ways” is a cover of the Journey song. I really like the Journey song, and I’ve enjoyed the many covers I’ve heard. Breathing Theory’s rendition is solid, though I also think it’s hard to mess up the song. Of the covers that I’ve heard, I think that this one is the most faithful to the original. Most covers I hear tend to take the original and change it from an 80s rock song into a modern hard rock or heavy metal song. Breathing Theory takes the song and just plays it in their style, which is an interesting change because it’s not that different from the original. There is, however, a little bit of interplay between clean and harsh vocals, though the lyrics remain largely clean. Overall, I think it’s a good cover.

“Blackout” is the final song on the album, and it’s another soft emotional piece. While “My Cancer” is a softer song, I think “Blackout” might be more emotional. The song starts very soft before building up and exploding in the second chorus. I think this might be the best build up on the entire album, and it really adds to the beauty of the song as it tells a story about the loss of another. Overall, it’s a very beautiful song that perfectly blends a softer style with a more intense one, and this blend serves to emphasize the emotion in the lyrics.

In conclusion, I like this album a lot. If you’re a fan of hard rock, give this album a listen. Even if you’re not a fan of this kind of music or are trying to get into it, I’d still recommend it. Breathing Theory is a smaller band, so they’re a bit more obscure, but their music continues to impress me. “Artificial” is no exception. The album features many moments of emotional intensity, and some of these moments are quite beautiful. It’s definitely my favorite album that they’ve put out.