Review Summary: So maybe The Fold isn’t breaking new ground, or pushing the boundaries with This To Shall Pass but it’s still a fun listen (almost) beginning to end.
Tooth and Nail Records isn’t a label known for singing the most progressive bands out there. Although they do have a few of my favorite bands signed on their label or sub-labels. (Emery, mewithoutYou, Underoath to name a few) most of their lineup consists of inoffensive, predictable pop-punk or whatever you want to call it. Enter The Fold; a Chicago based inoffensive, predictable pop-punk band. But that doesn’t necessarily make their first release on a record label, 2006’s
This To Shall Pass, a horrible listen. Quite to the contrary, it’s quite an enjoyable listen throughout. Whether it’s the cheesy-yet-infectious synth on the title track or the catchy dueling guitars in
Backseat Drivers there’s always something to keep you interested.
Band Members:
Daniel Castady- Vocals/Guitar
Aaron Green- Guitar
Keith Mochel- Bass
Mike Emmons- Drums
As far as album openers go The Fold manage to impress. In the track
Gravity shows everything the band has to offer in 3 minutes and 7 seconds. The soaring vocals, the okay drum fills and even there ability to display even a little bit of dynamics. There is even some spacey guitar in the middle of the song. So that’s good right? Having slew of songs that good in the beginning of an album really build up the expectations that
This To Shall Pass does not manage to live up to. The next track
Backseat Driver one of the highlights of the album and continues in the direction of pure pop-punk bliss. An up tempo song that manages to use palm-muted verses and powerchord choruses rather effectively. Sure it’s verse-chorus-verse-bridge structure it’s still enjoyable, mainly because of the catchiness throughout. When listening to an album such as this you really aren’t going to find much unique musicianship but with The Fold there is one aspect that sets them apart from the ranks of those likes of House Of Heroes or eleventyseven. Daniel Castady does not have that insanely annoying cookie-cutter voice usually attributed to his genre. It’s, in my humble opinion, a breath of fresh air over an otherwise stale band. After the synth infused track
This To Shall Pass there is an acoustic,59 second interlude
What Is Right, which is a nice break from all of the songs thus far. The album continues on in the same fashion of the first 6 or so tracks until
Remnant. This song is really something different from the tracks present earlier on
This To Shall Pass. As in it has a more post-hardcore feel to it with crunching guitars and soaring vocals, as well as a pretty well executed build up thrown in there for good measure.
The rest of the album, basically, consists of slow semi-acoustic ballads. (Save one song,
Rid Of Me). The best of these 5 slow songs would have to be the album closer and longest track on the CD,
I Believe In You. After about 2 minutes and 30 seconds the song completely changes direction and Matt Thiessen from Reliant K takes over the rest of the song, ending the album on a high note.
This To Shall Pass is not an album without fault, however catchy it may be. The only real problem that people would have with this album is the fact that there are a few tracks on here that the album could have done without. Most noticeably a few of the songs at the end of the album that sound a little bit too much alike. If The Fold would have cut out 3 or 4 songs they still would have an album at appropriate length but create and album without filler.
So maybe The Fold isn’t breaking new ground, or pushing the boundaries with
This To Shall Pass but it’s still a fun listen (almost) beginning to end.
Recommended Tracks:
Remnant
Backseat Drivers
I Believe In You
lol
