Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones - Black Veil Brides
User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 12
  3. Negative: 1 out of 12

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  1. StrawberryBlond
    Jan 30, 2013
    7
    Black Veil Brides are a new territory for me as I start my quest to broaden my musical taste and listen to as much new music as I can. After hearing their great lead single, In The End, I imagined great things for the rest of the album. And thankfully, it lived up to my expectations. Wretched And Divine is an album based around the theme of feeling rejected from society and rising up from oppression. Hardly reinventing the wheel, but a decent theme when done well. And they certainly do it well. With rousing guitar and passionate vocals, the group definitely sound genuine as they power their way through the 19-track album. However, this many tracks is somewhat annoying. Only 12 of those tracks are full length songs...plus a whopping seven interludes, some instrumental, some spoken. I find interludes to be very unnecessary, particularly when there's a lot of them and this album definitely overdid it in a bizarre attempt to make the album appear longer than the actually is. In reality, without them, the album barely scrapes 45 minutes. But despite all the padding, the actual songs are very good. My personal favourites are Devil's Choir with its classic beat and lyrics that reminds me of when I first discovered rock in my teens and Lost It All. a beautiful, introspective ballad. But every song is decent and are all roughly on the same level except maybe We Don't Belong, which is a bit too cheesy OTT teenage poetry-esque for me.
    I don't know much about the band, but I can tell from the way they dress and their songs that they probably get quite a bit of flack for being an "emo" band, even though they claim that they don't aim to be. It makes me wonder if anyone outside their teens should be considering their music good, but you know what? Society loves to put people into categories and it's ridiculous to generalise. Like what you like and embrace your inner rebel/outcast with this album.    … Expand
  2. Skydog
    Jan 13, 2013
    9
    This concept album describes the story of the kids who feel "unwanted" or "unknown", sort of in a gothic high school reunion tour. The first half is very good, but once it hits the middle i started to get scared. At first I thought Resurrecting the Sun wasn't very good, it took multiple listens to get any sort of connection to it, same with Shadows Die . The instrumentation is the standout on this album, Lost It All being one of my favorites out of the 19 track album. Overall the album is not as bad as the mainstream critics are suggesting, I am in no way a fan of their first two albums but my friend happened to let me borrow the CD after he thought i'd like it.
    Take a listen, folks!    … Collapse
  3. har1992ish
    May 28, 2013
    9
    A fine blend of punk, hard rock and glam metal that I enjoyed throughout the record. This is an album, not just a collection of tracks put together.

    The concept of the album and its narratives are very addicting. However the interludes get tiresome after repeated listens. T

    Standout Tracks Lost It All, In The End, Days Are Numbered
  4. atheist123
    Feb 4, 2013
    5
    An average album by an average band. Andy's vocals have improved over Set the World on Fire and the guest vocals by Bert from The Used is a nice addition, if a little underwhelming. The interludes grow tedious on repeat listens but all of the songs are solid hard rock fare and nothing too offensive. It's nowhere near as experimental as Andy implied prior to release with the exception of one song which included piano... Go listen to the Afterman: Descension by Coheed … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Kerrang!
    Feb 5, 2013
    80
    While Wretched And Divine might not be a game changer, for many people it could--and it should--be an opinion changer. [5 Jan 2013, p.54]
  2. The Guardian
    Jan 10, 2013
    40
    There is nowhere near enough invention on display to disguise the blank-eyed earnestness of the lyrics.
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  3. All Music Guide
    Jan 10, 2013
    60
    Wretched & Divine is a solid album of neo-hard rock that might just be the thing your inner Crüe fan has been looking for..
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