Review Summary: Oh shame, shame on them.
Throughout history, scene bands from the days of yesteryear have either been consistently praised, scorned in their heyday only to be reappraised multiple years later, or continuously scorned even with the passage of time.
From First To Last falls into both the second and third categories: their two efforts with the future Skrillex (2004's
Dear Diary and 2006's
Heroine) are looked back upon fondly despite being slammed as terrible when they debuted, while their years with Matt Good have been looked upon less favorably. Unfortunately for groups that revere Sonny and dismiss the Matt era as total crap with nothing good in it (
Throne To The Wolves would like a word with you), the sad fact is that both of Sonny Moore's efforts with the band are largely terrible outside of a couple of sparks of awesome sprinkled within. They both show bits and pieces of promise, but it's hard to appreciate said promise when so much about the album is downright
repulsive. This problem primarily shows up on
Heroine, as they started to break out of their comfort zone this time around.
Despite largely being a flaming dumpster fire,
Heroine does indeed have its moments of greatness. These moments of greatness can be boiled down almost exclusively to Derek Bloom, special guest bass player/album MVP Wes Borland, special guest programmer Atticus Ross (no, really), and mixer Andy Wallace; Bloom's drumming really started to come into it's own on
Heroine, and that's very evident on the crazier tracks like "Mothersound" (where Ross also provides some brooding electronics that do a great job complimenting the physical instruments, something also very evident on "Afterbirth"), while Borland compliments even Matt Good and Sonny Moore at their weakest
insanely well, writing some very intriguing bass lines that are not only audible(!!!) but also manage to outshine Bloom's drumming, too. Unfortunately, with the band's centerpieces arguably being Sonny and Matt, things are bound to suffer tremendously; Moore cannot keep himself in tune for a
massive chunk of the album (standouts "The Latest Plague" and "...And We All Have A Hell", which were written pretty well within his range, being the exceptions), occasionally goes off-beat
and off-tune, and his grating whine becomes so insufferable that it ends up taking away from the album as a whole, while Good isn't really going as all-in as Bloom and our guest instrumentalists are, essentially remaining
competent and not going much higher or lower than that (though "The Levy" features a pretty sick opening riff that's tragically ruined by an out-of-tune Moore approximately 30 seconds in).
Lyrically, From First To Last have never been top-tier writers, even when they've brought their absolute A-game in the composition department. Tracks such as "World War Me" are filled with laughable throwaway lines such as "It feels better now without control, oh girl / You look better blurry angel / Why do we need to be sanitary when the world's so filthy anyway?", while others such as "The Crows Are Coming For Us" are so creatively stifled lyrically that it frequently resorts to extreme results of repetition, such as "Crows" repeating "You walk on water / You sing that lovely tune" and "The crows are hungry for us / Let them live, let them live" for nearly the entire duration of the song. As for the production, both nu metal legend Ross Robinson and mixer Andy Wallace are flat out above their A-games and bring an insanely satisfying mix that gives every single element a chance to breathe. Unfortunately, the idiot mastering engineer squanders it all by once again compressing the ever-loving hell out of it, and the overall body of work suffers even more as a result. And that's the sad truth that plagues
Heroine. From First To Last are undeniably very talented, and without Moore's out-of-tune singing, Good's half-assing, and F-tier mastering, they could've had one of the greatest scenecore albums of all time on their hands. Unfortunately, the two centerpieces and one outside force squandered and stifled all the potential within, with Moore truly realizing his potential as Skrillex and the rest of the band realizing their potential on the Matt Good-fronted albums. It's a tragically bad album, and the band seems to have realized that with an aptly-given song title within it. Shame, shame.
