Review Summary: If you like angst ridden pop with a couple of breakdowns, this is right up your alley. If you prefer more uplifting songs that are poppy, heavy and fun, go pick up "For Those Who Have Heart".
Hello, this is my first review and I hope to start things off with a little bit of history about this band of dysfunctional proportions.
First of all, this band wasn't technically a band until it had the attention of the public. It started in the summer of 2007. Tom Denney and his friend Brian Calizini decided to make a side project that basically was any A Day To Remember song that was rejected in the last two album releases, at least it seemed like it. The original Line-up on their First EP entitled "With False Hope" consisted of Brian's screaming midrange guttural vocals. Bobby Scruggs (ex-A Day To Remember) on Drums and 3 - 4 unknowns. Interesting fact: The singer on the EP was actually Misha from the band Broadway which provided better vocals than the heavy auto-tuned singer on the LP.
"With False Hope" was most, if not all demo versions of the polished songs this LP has to offer.
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- HopeYouDieXO
- Running Away
- I Only Regret The Summer
- I'll Swing My Fist
Now onto the review of "A Hiding Place For Fake Friends"
November 11 2008 was a big day. There was the release of this album but also the start of Attack Attack!'s takeover. Sorry to say but this album couldnt stand a chance.
From first glance, this band seems to have pretty negative messages for their audience. The titles of "With False Hope" and "A Hiding Place For Fake Friends" seem a bit sorrowful and the track titles on this album are pretty long and sometimes unnecessary. Having that thought in mind, this album will be angry and temperamental. The first song, an intro track
"Give Her a Pill to Shut Her Up or Make Her a Mute" (being an unnecessarily long title) starts off in a heavy distorted opened power chord (in Drop C tuning) which escalates to Brian and the other vocalist screaming out in angst over a breakdown pattern. Nothing special. After hearing "Smile now you b*tch" a couple of times, you now know that the kids in this band are royally pissed the **** off.
After that short and rather decent intro, we go into one of the most well-received track on this album: "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ". This song starts off with chugs of Drop D opened power chords then progresses into Brian again. He has a real heavy tone to him with his low and middle range screams. This goes directly into the catchy chorus by the clean vocalist, Jason. Hes good with his voice and has some pretty harmony over the rhythm chords. With the singing verse in a pop-punk like style, it keeps the song at a nice pace. Then Brian takes over and singing almost disappears (as it fades to background vocals) from the track until the chorus again and an abrupt ending. This track, being decent, is a solid track.
Moving onto the rest of the album. "I Only Regret The Summer", "You Can Only Lift Your Dress Like Nobody's business" are just about as copy and paste as "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang " with some nice singing. I'd like to note that "I Only Regret The Summer" has a horrible breakdown placed in the middle of the song. It isn't just a breakdown, its a boring chugfest that stops the whole vibe of the song. But the band realized they just put their audience to sleep with that and shortly after woke them up with a pretty overdub singing part which always gets me, even though its all auto-tuned.
Ahh finally, Track 5: "It's Not Running Away If You Have Somewhere To Go". This is my favorite track on this album. The intro is really melodic and shows some nice clean guitar work over a heart-felt melody, then onto another catchy chorus. This chorus lines "I'll let you in, let you in, on another escape plan / 'cause you've been held captive once again" begs you to sing with Jason. Overall the singing and lyrics in this song are fantastic. The band doesn't focus too much on Brian's screams on this track which makes it better considering about after the first two tracks his screaming does get boring. I'm glad this song was 80% singing.
"HopeyoudieXO" is a copy and paste of "I Only Regret The Summer" without the terrible ridiculously slow breakdown. Note that it was impressing to hear the drums hold a constant drum roll lasting about 50 seconds.
"The Walls Between Us" is good with the harmonizing vocals and less screaming formula. As I was listening and singing along all the sudden the band had no idea where to put a breakdown and threw one in for sh*ts and giggles and it just bored me to tears.
"I'll Swing My Fists" AKA the official intro track to this album is a song with a minute and a half breakdown in drop C for some brutal tone mixed with a small singing chorus. This song is fun because not only is there a fun bouncy breakdown, but FINALLY the band adds the slower breakdown to the mix and makes this the heaviest the band will get. Whats even better is they get even slower from the previous slow breakdown. Its 3-in-1 fun through brutalville. I like this track a lot because this is the only track that shows the band can have fun even if it is the most basic track created.
"Forgetting Alli Mae" is a solid song. BUT was it me or did I notice that this song sounded almost identical to A Day To Remember's song "Start The Shooting" off of the "For Those Who Have Heart" album? It very well could've been the demo of that song but either way, it is a strong track in all regards. The guitars are the most noticeable on this track because the lead and the rhythm come together and make a nice melody throughout the track and the singing adds the cherry on top. The vocals work very well too, including the screaming. Very nice.
Last but not least we get onto the last track "I'm A Man of My Word". Not as fun as "I'll Swing My Fists" but its pretty heavy with the chugging and pinch harmonics. It goes by pretty fast and just fades out leaving a dead silence for another 5 to 8 minutes. Well guess what? Theres a Hidden track.
Remember how awesome track 5 was? Remember there was an acoustic version on the EP? It returns as a reprise in acoustic form. Its a nice chilled out addition but as far as everything else goes, it gets pretty boring because the acoustic guitar is drowned out by artificial strings. All and all it should've been the real ending to the LP instead of this breakdown of boringness.
Pros:
- All the singing (especially the overdub on track 3 "I Only Regret The Summer")
-Track 5 - "It's Not Running Away If You Have Somewhere To Go"
-Track 8 - "I'll Swing My First"
-Nice flow throughout tracks
Cons:
-Horrendous breakdown placement in tracks 3 and 7
-Screams do get boring fast
-Same formula songs can be skipped easily
-Almost a direct copy of A Day To Remember.
In conclusion, if you like angst ridden pop with a couple of breakdowns, this is right up your alley. If you prefer more uplifting songs that are poppy, heavy and fun, go pick up "For Those Who Have Heart".
Not to say I don't like the band but this LP would've been a lot better as a fully polished EP.
PS: "We Are Defiance" is the newest band that both Jason and Brian front for. They took every complaint about this band and returned with a more fun and happy band with some good breakdown placements and transitions.
