For All Those Sleeping is a 5-piece metalcore band from Minnesota. Outspoken is their second full-length album following their debut album, Cross Your Fingers. Cross Your Fingers had a much lighter sound than most metalcore albums focusing more on the pop-punk choruses and clean vocals were extremely prominent. This album switches gears becoming a heavy, less clean vocal-driven album. Does FATS avoid the sophomore slump that plagues thousands of bands?
1. Outspoken - This is a 48 second long intro track that starts the album fantastically heavy.
2. Once a Liar (Always a Fake) - This track keeps the heavy train rolling, with a catchy chorus and some heavy verses this song shines.
3. Mark My Words - The first track released off of this album definitely showed that the band was going in a much heavier direction than their previous album. This song is just great, not much more to say.
4. Tell Me the Truth - This track lightens it up a bit, it's here that we start to realize the theme of the album: liars/betrayal.
5. Follow My Voice - Conceptually this is my favorite song on the album, it's about how the singer doesn't want to be the voice of a generation, just the voice to help you get out of the dark times in your life. This song is truly beautiful.
6. Turn of the Century - A heavier song with no clean vocals at all and it sounds refreshingly good.
7. Life on Fire - A song about setting someone's life on fire. Obviously this a very angry album.
8. Love isn't Real - One of my favorite songs on the album, it goes back to the style of the first album, clean chorus, clean vocals, heavy breakdown, this song is amazing.
9. Never Trust a Dead Man - Another heavy one, I liked it a lot at first but it hasn't been in my rotation lately, a little forgettable.
10. Shaken Not Stirred - A heavy track, almost blends in with the last track, doesn't do much for me.
11. One Kiss - Finally a lighter song, oddly enough I was almost craving clean vocals again, I didn't like this song at first but it's grown on me a lot since I first listened to the album.
12. Backstabber - Gotta end the album heavily of course. It brings back the great clean chorus with the heavy verses, and it ends the album on a high note.
13. I Am Forever - This is an iTunes only bonus track, I thought I'd throw it in the review. The guitar work is exceptional on this track and gives it it's own personality. I don't know why this is an iTunes only track, it should be on the physical copies because it's a good track and I feel like it ends the album better.
Overall: I almost have mixed feelings about this album, some of the songs blend together, which is typical of albums from this genre, plus the album is pretty generic and unoriginal. Even while being unoriginal the band does it better than a lot of the other bands in the genre. FATS is definitely a standout band in the genre, they have their faults but overall, they're solid. Oddly enough I felt it may have been too heavy, I love heavy music but I was craving clean vocals throughout and after listening to the album all the way through I find myself either listening to hip hop or R&B to balance it out.
Rating: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment