Review Summary: To sum the album up best, while writing this review and listening to the album, I got distracted by a basketball game where the winning team had an eleven point lead for a good five minutes.
Back in 2007, I listened to this new band on Victory Records called Arise and Ruin. I thought The Final Dawn was so bad that when I reviewed it I did not even make it through the whole album. We are now in 2009, and Arise and Ruin are still around writing music. They released their sophomore album Night Storms Hailfire in February. But what happened in the year between? In 2008, the band lost a member, was robbed, broke, and were without their family and friends while touring. The band entered a Toronto studio with the mindset to create an album to revitalize their love of metal and playing to a live audience. The band believes they are killing “false metal”.
I do hate to break it to the band, but while they may be having a metal lovefest again, they still manage to have a not so good album. I do like how they decided to change the direction of their sound. It has more of a death metal influence on it. Old habits are hard to break it seems, as the vocals are still monotone. At least they are not as boring as on their previous album. They also bring in the death metal influence I was talking about. What does make the vocals as bad as the last album is the fact that for the most part they are still monotone and make each song sound like the last. The guitars are generic, mostly just chugging away, and the breakdowns are nothing special and seem uninspired. The rhythm section is simple at best.
To sum the album up best, while writing this review and listening to the album, I got distracted by a basketball game where the winning team had an eleven point lead for a good five minutes. Arise and Ruin has stayed at the same rating, but this album is still considered a step backwards for the band. My doubts about this album before I got the album were pretty much on point. If you are a fan of this band, by all means pick this album up. If not, stay away from this band as them seem to never improve.
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