Review Summary: Not particuarly bad, but this could be a thousand other bands.
The opening track ''To Sleep'' is deceptive. Lulling the listener into a false hope of musical ambition and maturity, this is quickly shattered by the start of the first ''real'' track, ''Grand Unification Part 1''. This is summative of the album as a whole, a band who want to go places, yet keep getting drawn back to familiar, pop orientated rock territory. Although they may hold their influences such as Deftones like a badge on honour, they display none of the qualities that managed to distinguish their aforementioned idols above the slew of other nu-metal bands. In a similar sense, Fightstar have produced very little to shine out from the hordes of their ''post-hardcore'' contemporaries.
That being said, perhaps it is not fair to simply deride this band for not redefening their genre (of course, this would be no special feat if EVERY band were expected to do so). Songs like ''Paint Your Target'' and ''Hazy Eyes'' provide extremely poppy melodies, the latter not a world away (in pure ''spring'' factor) from Charlie Simpson's previous incarnation in Busted. All too often, however, you get the feeling that you've heard this before, as you probably have, as most tracks on here have a very similar sound, which is being aped by a million other bands you've heard before. ''Lost Like Tears In Rain'' is a pretty decent song, but could have been done by any other similar band, an as such lacks any real distinguishment. One real favourite from this album for me, however, is the track entitled ''Here Again (Last Conversation)'', fast, fun drumming complementing what is essentially the perfection of the Fighstar reciepie: crunching (but non-threatening) guitar offset by pretty twinkling guitar, with a sprinkling of intertwining bass lines, and Charlie Simpson's ''gravelly'' vocals. Certainly not a reciepie for disaster, but perhaps not one for ultimate satisfaction either.
