| I Went to Hell and Back | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | As It Is |
| Cover: | File:I Went to Hell and Back.png |
| Alt: | A top-down image of a skeleton stood in a dark room in front of a doorway pouring light in and casting the skeleton's shadow on the ground in front of it. |
| Released: | 4 February 2022 |
| Genre: |
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| Length: | 40:20 |
| Label: | Fearless |
| Producer: | Zach Jones |
| Prev Title: | Bargaining: Reimagined |
| Prev Year: | 2019 |
I Went to Hell and Back is the fourth studio album by British-American pop-punk band As It Is, released 4 February 2022 by Fearless Records.[1] [2] The album is the band's first as a trio after guitarist Benjamin Langford-Biss left in 2019[3] and drummer Patrick Foley left in 2020 to pursue his firefighting career,[4] with vocalist Patty Walters recording drums in studio,[5] and their last with Alistair Testo who left the band in August 2022.[6]
Distorted Sounds Katie Bird says that the band "have stopped playing it safe", showing with the post-hardcore screams on album opener "IDGAF"'s final chorus that they "aren't here to play around." Subsequent to the first couple tracks, the "heavy rock sound screeches to a halt" with "ILY, How Are You?" and "IDC, I Can't Take It" introducing "strange electronic production" on which it is "nice to see the band experimenting with different genres." The rest of the album switches back and forth between post-hardcore, electronic rock, and pop-punk, making for a "cumulation of everything [the band] have done so far." Bird closes by saying "Despite some mishaps, there is something for everyone. This band are at their best when they are having fun, and that definitely happens a lot on this album." Jake Richardson of Kerrang! writes that the album sees the band "settle on a sound somewhere in between the darkness of their last record [''The Great Depression''] and the more upbeat stylings of their early material", a "decision that pays dividends throughout." "I Miss 2003" is described as Walters' "love letter to the Warped Tour scene, with lyrics referencing New Found Glory, The All-American Rejects, Mayday Parade and Good Charlotte", but the song is "an anthem in its own right, and a song that does far more than just play on nostalgia for the sake of it." The album is "slick, coherent", "the most fully-rounded incarnation of As It Is to date", and "comfortably the best its creators have ever sounded."
New Noise Magazines Tabitha Timms notes "IDGAF" for "shin[ing] a light on the band's ability to create catchy melodies and puts a heavy push on fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, featured in the song's chorus"; "I Lie to Me"'s "descending staircase feeling of hooks tied into the chorus and verses"; "I Hate Me Too" as a "powerhouse of a track" which "indicates that their in-tune with their genre and modernizing it"; and the closing title track which "adds an easy listening dynamic to the record, leaving for a light ending to a bold record." Upsets Stephen Ackroyd calls the album, "in an unstable world", "a record that's raw, honest, but also determined and stronger than ever", making a catharsis that "feels important, both for the band and everyone else."
In a marginally less positive review, Sputnikmusic's Jesper L. opens by quoting the "I'm 14 and this is deep" meme, noting "admittedly shaky lyricism" such as the chorus "I don't want to be right/But I know that it's true/I'm dead inside/I hate me too" and "Sick and tired as the world keeps spinning around/Am I losing my head?" as not "exactly profound or in need of any interpretation whatsoever", but still "highly capable of opening up conversations about mental health among the target demographic of trap-infused pop punk." It's "a shame that As It Is have proven incapable of maturing alongside their audience" but "their attempts at destigmatising such topics haven't changed either." The album overall is "a collection of songs that suck, rule, or simply exist, without any regards for cohesion or flow."
As It Is
Additional musicians
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