Review Summary: Within a saturated genre, Flaw begin to craft their own sound, but can’t completely break out of the generic Nu Metal pattern.
Love it or hate it, Nu Metal had taken over the airwaves in the late 90’s and early 00’s and became full of rip-offs and people who could barely play their instruments. With only a handful of bands trying to do something original in the genre, most serious music lovers turned their back on the majority of the genre completely.
Though the album lacks some of the creativity showed in their next album, Through the Eyes isn’t that bad of an album. Most songs are generic aggressive Nu Metal songs in the vein of Mudvayne, except unlike Mudvayne, the vocals carry this whole album, because the instruments are always played towards his voice and never really do anything interesting. The guitars pound out power chords constantly and the drums sound pretty much the same through the whole album. The singing is good, but not completely consistent. On most songs, Volz’s vocal delivery is superb and emotional, but on some, like the song “Inner Strength”, they sound completely uninspired and pretty boring.
Lyrically, there really is nothing special at all, which can be seen most notably on “Payback” and “Whole. Because I heard Endangered Species first, I was hoping for the good lyrics that I found there, but instead I found the average angsty lyrical influences that I would find if I were listening to Korn. Though the lyrics aren’t very great, it doesn’t really take much from the album, and if you listen to music like this anyway, it really won’t bother you.
Generic seems to be a word that is thrown around a lot on this site, but in all honesty, this album accomplishes nothing more than other Nu Metal bands out there. Instead, it does give a hint to what they are capable of. Songs like “Amendment” and “What I have to do” are some highlights of the album. On the other hand, the song “Scheme” really shows the low points of the album.
As a whole, the album is not anything special, but isn’t horrid. Even with the bland instruments, and some lame filler, it makes for a solid debut that has some great moments that hint to a better album in the future.
