Review Summary: As a band going in a new direction, And Then There Were None manage to put out a good album that will alienate many old fans, but draw new ones in.
And Then There Were None started out as a metalcore band based out of New England. For their third release, they have abandoned the metalcore roots for a euro-pop based sound. While this may alienate older fans who need their T0t4lly br00t4l m3t4l, ATTWN manage to make this change with ease, and the result is someone no one would have expected after listening to their last effort, "The Hope We Forgot Exists."
To get right to the point, bands incorporating synths and other pop elements is something that is becoming more and more commonplace today, and most of the time it turns out terrible and gimmicky. See: Metro Station. That being said, ATTWN could be referred to as "Metro Station that doesn't suck."
After a short intro track, the real music begins with "John Orr The Arsonist." Fans of older ATTWN material will immediately eject this disc in disgust. This is poppy, upbeat, and very well-produced. All definite no-no's for metalcore. But this isn't metalcore.
By incorporating interesting lyrics that don't bludgeon you over the head with christian overtones, ATTWN has made an improvement of their last album in one marked area. Now even fans of a secular nature can enjoy their euro-pop! All joking aside, the lyrics are fantastic, and feel fresh in today's scene.
The music itself is the saving grace, using fast and unique measures and sounds, at least compared to the genre today. In between incredibly catchy verse-chorus based song structures, full out synth breaks are featured, and instead of feeling like filler, they provide breathing room in between singing and entertain rather than bore.
The tracks are all worth a listen, but there are two in particular worth a special mention, "John Orr the Arsonist" and "Cloak and Dagger." The first starts with an infectious pop beat which effortlessly melds into the first verse, and in the background, a xylophone (!) can be heard and provides an undeniable charm to the track. All of this is before some spoken word vocoded dialogue comes on, and then the song bursts into its soaring chorus, which you will definitely be singing along to after your first listen.
"Cloak and Dagger" opens with a beat that will be familiar to anyone who has ever been in a strip club, which is troubling enough considering that this is actually quite a serious album. The beat is built upon by the rest of the band and reaches its climax a little over a minute into the song, and meshes perfectly with the strained vocal work. One of the short aforementioned synth breaks starts at 1:30 in the song and while only a few seconds long, proves to be one of the coolest implementations of electronics on the album, and ultimately makes this one of the more memorable tracks.
So for fans of ATTWN's old sound, lets hope you're open to change. As for anyone who can appreciate good music, try to put all previous connotations of the "euro-pop" nomenclature out of sight and out of mind, and pop this disc in. You will not be disappointed.
*The cover of "Right Here Waiting" is worth the admission price by itself....
