Review Summary: "Don't worry too much, it only hurts when I scream"
On top of being a mouthful, "Fractures in the Facade of Your Porcelain Beauty" is actually Atreyu's second EP. This is the one that got Victory Records' attention and its undoubtedly a lot stronger than the band's previous EP in "Visions". While that EP featured a more heavier sound than this, you can tell the musical chops weren't quite there in many ways and seeing that you won't even find "Visions" on streaming services, the band might feel that way too.
Alex, the band's harsh vocalist, had a deeper, more guttural voice and there's even one or two points where I'd say he pulls it off, if not terribly well. He tries to continue that on here but granted how painful it sounds for him to do his vocals at all, it's reigned in a bit. Since this came only shortly before the band's first album ,"Suicide Notes & Butterfly Kisses", the songs are very in tone with what that album offers especially seeing as three of the five songs here are on their debut as well. It does, however, miss a bit of that polish that they'd get from their first record deal. It honestly doesn't bother me that much though and the songs on here have their own little intricacies from their mainstream clones.
Just for instance, "Tulips Are Better" has a more clean sounding intro, "Someone's Standing on my Chest" has a slightly different bridge and breakdown, and over-all the instrumentation sounds a bit heavier in its' mixing which helps build great energy with Atreyu's faster paced songs. The other two songs on here are serviceable but definitely the weak links on here. "A Letter to Somone You Love" admittedly has a really fun intro, but goes on way too long and features a poor quality spoken word section that populated metalcore in the late 90's. "Taking Back Every Word I Said" fares a little better, even though it also features another spoken word section, featuring some clean guitar work bridging the songs structure, a satisfying riff to end the song, and some true attempts at guttural growls. Serviceable songs, but easy to see why they weren't picked to re-record.
There's definitely aspects that are worse just from the lack of budget. Brandon's singing isn't near as endearing here as it is on the full-length albums just for example but I can't deny the songs are just as good here than on "Suicide Notes". This is an easy recommendation if you love the band and I believe it's worth a listen if you liked Atreyu's early work if just to contrast the songs.
