Review Summary: A rather generic yet hauntingly attractive album. Nothing new, nothing special, but plenty of potential for a band to grow into something better. Think the metal version of Chris Daughtry... both good and bad....but mostly boring.
Something about this band makes me want to not like them. To be quite honest, something in my gut tells me that this band is worthy of absolutely nothing, and is no different than any other band. Something told me I shouldn't even write this review, that it was a waste of time. But something else, for some reason, draws me towards this band, with hope that they can evolve more, because the band shows many signs of promise, glimpses of talent, a glimmer of something new. So, with the polar opposites of opinion pulling me in opposite directions, I will attempt to dissect the good and the bad about this rather divided album.
Numbers don't (always) lie; the band's debut,
The Way of the Fist, landed on the Billboard New Artist Charts at #3, and made the Top 200 in its first week--still extremely impressive for a metal band. But to me, this may be perhaps a case of too much hype, because the songs themselves don't seem to match up to the numbers.
Lyrically, this album is atrocious. With the exception of the hit single, "The Bleeding" and "Salvation", I am hard pressed to find songs that are more poorly written. They do not flow at all, and seemed extremely forced at times. Not every singer has to be the most eloquent songwriter on the planet, but this is completely inexcusable. Having said that, the vocal performance tries desperately to make up for it. Ivan Moody's harsh vocals are well delivered and have an intensity of thier own, and his clean singing clearly dominates the whiny crap heard from most mainstream metal artists these days. Sadly, the intensity of the vocals at times accentuates the poorly written lyrics, slightly damaging any credit one can give to his vocal ability.
The rythm and groove of this album is acceptable for mainstream metal; they make it work decently enough. My complaint is that being decent enough to hold a headbanging rythm doesn't hold any water when the riffing itself is incredibly simple and generic. It's okay if you are just looking for something to rock out to, but I simply cannot respect the lack of genuine musicianship in the guitar section, or even the drums for that matter. The one positive thing I will say is that Zoltan Bathory is a talented lead guitar player; however, it seems he is kept in check a large part of the time.
It seems that this band was trying to write a brutal record, and fell short in leiu of tight songs and hope for mainstream success. The overall feel of the album is far too tight and focused, and thus loses the intensity that the vocals are now forced to carry on thier own. This, to me, creates an unecessary separation between the vocals and the lyrics, and really puts me off. Everything seems a bit forced and contrived; if the songs were a bit looser, they probably could have achieved a far heavier and more enjoyable album.
The result is an album that gets very boring, very quickly. The title track is rather unimpressive, while the second half of the album is forgettable. "White Knuckles", "The Devil's Own", and "A Place to Die" are all simple, rather uninspiring songs. You simply cannot write an album where the entire second half is filler tracks, and that's what this seems to be.
Overall, this album is not for anybody looking for the next great talented band. It's just another band to rock out to. But the vocal talent, lead guitar talent, and melody composing ability is there. A band cannot expect to be acknowledged for a bunch of "The Bleeding"s. They will have to do far more in the future.
