A Day To Remember get heavy on 'Resentment'

A Day To Remember do poppy and heavy. Their continual success over the years is all due to their sound effectively sitting in the commercial middle of a Venn Diagram between pop-punk and hardcore; between the mainstream world and the metal one. Plenty of bands since have tried to emulate that sound (and that success), yet to no real avail. ADTR stands as an outlier in that regard. Yet over the last few years, their songwriting quality has declined in direct proportion to the incline of their rising popularity.

Previous singles, the Marshmello collaboration of 'Rescue Me' and the electro-tinged pop-rock of 'Degenerates,' were the poppier, catchier side of the American band. (Harmless yet also not great tunes, mind you.) Now, their newest single, 'Resentment,' definitely falls on the opposite end of their sonic spectrum: a heavier, chuggier, breakdownier take on their ever-popular pop-mosh style, complete with a big ol' anthemic chorus because of course there is. Outside of the band using electronics and synths that persist throughout the arrangement, this isn't anything that new for ADTR. And there was never going to be. These guys just basically do the same thing with each new LP, with very few minor changes found on each subsequent iteration, and  that's why people love 'em.

Like much of their newer but also weaker material, 'Resentment' has got nothing on some of their greatest heavier numbers, songs like: 'Sticks & Bricks,' 'Heartless,' 'You'll Be Tails, I'll Be Sonic,' 'Why Walk On Water When We've Got Boats?,' 'Welcome to the Family,' and 'Violence (Enough Is Enough).' For despite this song's chorus declaring that it "Starts with a spark then it’s a wildfire," it all sounds like their once-burning musical spark has gone out and they're now running on auto-pilot. And that "welcome to the eye of the tiger, go!" breakdown pit-call may be the silliest thing ADTR has ever written. So I guess you could say that I do hold some... resentment to this new single.

ADTR are headlining Good Things 2019 alongside Parkway Drive in December and have delayed their next album until sometime in 2020. Whatever it's called, and whenever it actually drops, safely expect it to be full of songs like 'Resentment' and 'Degenerates.'