Success doesn’t seem to soothe the savage beast that rages within Bullet for My Valentine frontman Matt Tuck. Although his group has made its mark on the metalcore underground, Tuck spends most of the Welsh quartet’s new album spewing venomous tirades at a variety of villains who have done him wrong. But he does it in a polished fashion that makes “Fever” the band’s most commercial outing yet. From the ballady, made-for-airplay track “A Place Where You Belong” to hooky speed rockers like “The Last Fight” and “Pleasure and Pain,” the set comfortably straddles the Mayhem/Warped festival divide. And the song “Alone” offers six minutes of epic ebb-and-flow orchestration, while a few Cookie Monster growls still pop up in “Breaking Out, Breaking Down,” “Begging for Mercy” and the defiant “Dignity.” But it’s clear on “Fever” that Bullet for My Valentine is hot to step closer to the metal mainstream.
