Album Review
4 minute review read
Why I listened to this album
This one’s kind of a no-brainer for me. I’ve been a fan of The Warning since my dad first played me Keep Me Fed, not long after it had come out. I saw them play with YUNGBLUD at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow in April, so I saw Kerosene and Ego live, a truly amazing experience! Kerosene, Ego and Ritual, the leading singles are all absolute bangers, I’m a big Warning fan… why wouldn’t I listen to this album and then yap about it here?
The Album
I don’t really know where to start with this album – all the tracks feel equally good, though all so varied and… just brilliant! I really struggled picking my standout tracks, but I tried to only write about the ones I had at least a full paragraph of stuff to say on, but if you want my opinion on a song I haven’t covered I’m happy to share! To start, I really like the track placing on this album – opening with Ritual is a strong move, and really does set the scene for the story through this album (which I’ll expand on later).
The title track, Everything’s Falling – damn. I adore the guitar opening, and the build between much softer, almost acoustic sounding verses and the heavier, loud choruses is perfect, and Dany (the main vocalist) has always put so much passion into her vocals – this title track deserves its weight in the album. I feel it has some similarities to a track from their 2022 album ERROR, the track being CHOKE. They’re both powerful tracks about questioning just giving up, and they both have huge amounts of skill and passion poured into them, creating songs that really fill me with awe.
The track straight after, Why Do You Like It When I Cry? was an immediate favourite – the riff has amazing swagger, and Dany’s vocals have hit new hights, literally. On the choruses she is belting (chest voice singing in higher range) into the stratosphere, with control that I can’t fathom. Moving into the breakdown, and this is the most metal the album gets – its heavy, and combined with Pau (drummer and other main vocalist) screaming harder than in EVOLVE or the coming Ego, but in a way that suits her voice so well – when she screams I get goosebumps every time.
My next track is Kill Or Be Killed, as not only is it another amazing track, but I have lore theories. A lot of the previous tracks, especially Bite My Tongue and Why Do You Like It When I Cry? have strong themes of being silenced and shut down, possibly in a relationship. In my first listen notes, I said “Up to Kill Or Be Killed there are lots of lyrics about being used and trapped, and then ‘This is what you made me’ in this track – I’m guessing there’s some kind of revenge” I think this is correlated by other lyrics in Kill Or Be Killed – ‘I could be the worst kind of person’ and ‘I will consume the world’. Make of that what you will, as I’ll be honest that I’m not sure where the story goes from here.
The intro to Bruises sounds like a Muse riff, it really makes sense that Muse are a big influence on the sisters (The Warning are three sisters by the way!). It starts so big then falls away to a hushed vocal that shows off Dany’s voice brilliantly, I love the rhythm in the verses, accentuated by strong consonants. Then the post-chorus is not like something I’ve heard from The Warning before, but it fits well with this song and I love that everything is still very fresh across the album. And then we have another heavy outro, with a return of the riff from the start and a perfect storm to carry into the penultimate track.
Waste Your Time On Me is a catchy hard rock anthem. It has so much energy and an indescribable angst that feels very free and wild, while still being very technical and precise. It just makes me want to sing along as loud as I can, and I’d kill to see it live! I guess we have to cross our fingers for a UK tour – I bet they could fill the OVO Hydro in Glasgow where they so recently supported YUNGBLUD. After all, Hell You Call A Dream (from their last album, Keep Me Fed) has 31 million streams on Spotify, and Kerosene already has 7 million. That’s rather a lot.
The album then rounds out with Kerosene, what they have said is ‘what we would write if we were a pop group that did the odd rock song’. It’s very fun, absolutely insane live, and even has a dance that I definitely haven’t learned.
Overall, this album is an incredible addition to The Warning’s growing catalogue, and will certainly be getting a lot of listens in this house!
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