Review Summary: My destruction lives.
In 2013, Fit For A King signed to Solid State Records and released their second full length album, "Creation/Destruction".
Creation/Destruction expands upon the band's sound from "Descendants", but takes it to the next level, with more complex songwriting, heavier songs, and the production on this album is a massive improvement. "Creation/Destruction" is very appropriately named, with the first half of the album dealing with the character's strong faith as he starts to struggle with it and allows the devil into his life before the second half of the album gets progressively heavier and heavier as the lyrics become darker and the character faces the consequences of his decision before returning to his faith and "destroying the devil" that he let in and make his life spiral out of control. It plays out very interestingly lyrically and remains to this day one of the band's most faith-inspired albums.
Creation/Destruction's sound can be grouped into two categories: The heavy and the melodic. While many songs combine the two, songs like "Bitter End" focus on the heavy elements of the album and are driven by the instrumentals, meanwhile songs like "Broken Fame" are driven by the vocal melodies and contain some of the catchiest moments in the band's discography.
The album opens with “Warpath”, a song that sets the tone for the rest of the album, full of heavy riffage and a raw guitar tone with a brutal vocal performance from Kirby. The song’s chorus is a bit weaker than other songs on the album, but it’s still a great opener with a 20 second long scream at the end of it. “Hollow King (Sound Of The End)" keeps the unrelenting pace of the previous track and has one of the best choruses on the album. The drums on this song are very dynamic and add to the heaviness of the rest of the instrumentals in the song overall. The song is one of my favorite Fit For A King songs to this day and one I frequently go back to.
"Skin and Bones is very different from the rest of the album, a ballad with ambient lead guitars and entirely clean vocals. The song provides a nice change of pace from the previous four tracks. The song starts off with calm with samples and pianos providing the backbone before it slowly builds to an epic finish with a very emotional chorus as the guitars kick in and add a lot to the dynamics of the song and it's honestly one of my favorite softer songs the band has put out.
The Resistance flows from the glitched samples of the previous track into one of the heaviest moments of the album with a brutal riff and the song never relinquishes it’s fast pacing from it's intro. The song features the famous “YOUR EXISTENCE DISGUSTS ME” breakdown call out and has great lyrics overall that match the sound of the track. The songs "Identity" and "The Lioness" are sonically similar and even heavier than this song and follow up the track.
“Eyes to See” feels very similar to “Messenger, Messenger” from their previous album, with the energy of punk song and one of the best choruses on the album. It's a stellar track that consistently gets better as it goes on and gets better with each listen.
The final track, “Destruction” is appropriately named because that’s exactly what the song sounds like. With deathcore influences and the being heaviest track on the record. The lyrics call out the hypocrisy of some people that claim to be devout and serves as a warning as to what will happen if they don't change their ways. The song ends with menacing vocals as the album fades out with an orchestra as the lyrics “my destruction lives” is repeated, normally I love orchestral elements to end songs, but it feels very forced and doesn't really fit the rest of the album or even the rest of the song. The track is a bit repetitive but serves as a decent closer to the album despite being the weakest song on the album overall in my opinion.
Creation/Destruction was the album that put Fit For A King on the radar and showcased a lot of potential, which they capitalize on a couple albums later massively, but does have a few flaws overall. Though the album was a major improvement from the band's past material, it does at times does feel a bit samey and isn't anything new for the genre but at the time, but it's sound is pulled off very well and is actually my second favorite Fit For A King album and a lot of fun to listen to.
Best songs: Hollow King, Eyes To See, Broken Fame
Least Faves: Destruction
