Review Summary: Just plain average
Screamo has recently infiltrated just about every band nowadays. It’s the newest fad and it's even coming into play with pop-punk bands such as Reliant K and even Green Day. So with this trend infiltrating every inch of the music scene you think that it wouldn’t be all that hard to find a quality “screamo” band. You would probably think that but with the new trend there are a lot of bands out now that set the bar and then there are bands out there that try to just copy another mildly successful band. Well this band is defiantly part of the second group.
Bands Members:
Craig Mabbit: Vocals
Jared Warth: Bass/Vocals
Mike Frisby: Guitar
Eric Lambert: Guitar
Matt Traynor: Drums
This 5 piece band from Phoenix, Arizona is basically a carbon copy of the band Alesana. And I’m not saying that as a compliment. With equally whinny vocals as the guy from Alesana it is pretty tough to get through a full song, let alone the entire 11 tracks.
The album opens up with the screams of ex-vocalist Craig Mabbit with some pretty solid guitar work by Eric Lambert and Mike Frisby. I would have to say that the guitar work is probably the highlight of His Last Walk. You usually get two or three guitar parts in every song with one guitar laying down the rhythm and the other two guitars dueling pretty good harmony throughout the entire album. But that being said the rest of the album is just so…stereotypical post-hardcore that it’s hard to take them seriously. It’s like that take every hardcore cliché out there and wrap it into one single album.
Take for instance the lyrics in the song Black Rose Dying.
“Gouge out your eyes, pull your heart to the floor
With my heart, my skin, my kiss
Stand back, drop to your knees, I'll stand back as you bleed
With my heart, my skin, my kiss”
I’m not saying that that’s what every song is about but that line just made me laugh a little. And also they have that duel screaming that is the newest fad. I mean a lot of bands can pull that off because they have two good screamers. In blessthefall they have one pretty good screamer and then one awful screamer. Bassist’s Jared Warth secondary screams are basically incompressible and it sounds like he’s got something stuck in the back of his throat. And the fact that Jared screams in just about every track doesn’t help out that much to add to the accessibility of the album. And again now that Craig is gone blessthefall is down to one horrible screamer. But not every track on this CD is horrible. They’re second track Guys Like You Make Us Look Bad is really the standout track of the CD. Everything instrument is played above the average. The drums in the chorus have a very nice blast beat showing off that Matt does indeed have some nice drum chops. It’s a very heartfelt song talking about the abuse of a little girl and how they didn’t do anything to stop it. It has, in my mind, a beautiful breakdown before the song explodes again for the last 30 seconds. But other then that track and the closer track this album really doesn’t stand out. The closer track His Last Walk is a good song for about a minute and a half until the song fades out and then turns to a couple of minutes of silence.
I’m not saying that this band is horrible; I’m just saying that they’re so… average. There’s nothing in this album that really stands out and makes you want to listen. When you take this band and compare them with any post-hardcore band they just don’t have that wow factor to pull ahead of the crowd. So if you are just getting into the genre of music this would probably be a good band to get into it.
Recommended Tracks:
Guys Like You Make Us Look Bad
His Last Walk
i was 15. i wasn't the elitist i am now
