It’s no secret that Bullet For My Valentine are a polarizing band. While albums like their debut The Poison and its follow-up Scream Aim Fire were fan favorites, they’ve also put out records like Temper Temper – ones that even the most diehard of BMFV fans are loathe to enjoy. Former drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas, was the band’s longtime drummer until leaving the band a few years back. He’s also in a new band, Kill The Lights (which features members of Throw The Fight and Threat Signal, among others), but the drummer had plenty to say about just why he left Bullet.
In a new interview with Wall Of Sound, Thomas had plenty to dish on why Bullet For My Valentine became, well, safe:
Reflecting on his final years with Bullet For My Valentine, the Welsh drummer felt misaligned with the band’s changing direction.
“Bullet got very stale you know, after the third album we were trying to get a bit of cash because, you know, it is your job – but it just got boring” Moose admits. He feels like Kill The Lights has filled a bit of a void in that regard. “It’s just nice to be in a fresh band where everyone’s excited and ready to go, and writing good music is the best remedy for me at the moment.”
“It was just too safe with Bullet. We started recording our fourth album Temper Temper and we were just writing for radio, which is definitely the wrong thing to do. When I joined Kill The Lights, we were just like ‘fuck radio, we have our own sound’. I grew up with a lot of punk rock and none of that is on the radio. We just enjoy what we’re playing and that’s where we are at the moment, just being ourselves.”
None of this is particularly surprising, of course. As Thomas intimated to Wall Of Sound, the band really did start to play things safe even with their sophomore album. That’s not to say they were alone in the obscure category of “metalcore bands who softened things up a bit”, with bands like Bring Me The Horizon clearly falling in that category, but albums like Temper Temper and 2018’s Gravity weren’t well received for a reason – particularly from a lyrical standpoint. Perhaps the band might recapture their magic on their “very heavy” upcoming album. As for Moose, he’s now a part of Kill The Lights, who just released their debut album on Fearless Records today.
