Review Summary: Just like in Elder Scrolls IV, Finch produces an Oblivion that seems edgy and chaotic, but becomes boring and repetitive before its end.
I sometimes find it ironic that my favorite genre of music is one that developed right around my childhood. The post-hardcore scene of the early 2000's, featuring bands like Glassjaw, At the Drive-In, Alexisonfire, Thrice, Thursday, etc. is what I find myself coming back to today. However, I missed most of those bands when they were making their rounds in the US. When Finch went on their reunion tour, no one knew what to expect. I saw them last summer, and it was clear that they didn't know what the future held either. Turns out that tour went better than they could have dreamed, and here we are with a new album,
Back to Oblivion.
On the surface, Finch hit all the right notes. The vocals are everything you would expect from a post-hardcore band, and the guitars follow suit. While it's not an original sound, it's refreshing to hear it without the pretentious hype that seems to follow reunion albums. Vocalist Nate Barcalow appears to be very comfortable as the center of attention, and it's a role he fills well. Songs like "Play Dead" and ballad "Inferium" successfully rely on his melodic delivery. I do wish that his voice weren't edited so heavily in the studio, but it certainly adds an extra punch to some of the choruses, which might be lacking otherwise.
The criticisms that I have for this album are few, but I feel that they hinder it a lot more than they should. First, the drumming is simple and bland. Maybe I focus on more of this as a drummer, but drummer Alex Pappas seems far too complacant in letting the rest of the band take the lead of the songs. One has to wonder how much more dynamic "The Great Divide" could be if Pappas had taken a more active role.
The other criticism I have is the fact that too often,
Back to Oblivion feels like more time was spent post-production than in songwriting. I hate to use cliches in criticism like the idea of a filler song, but several of the songs in the second half seem to use post-production effects to mask the lack of interesting musical ideas. "Tarot" is a painful example of this, with the forgettable twinkly lead guitar tone in the chorus, lackluster vocals, and excessive reverb towards the end. "Murder Me" is more enjoyable but suffers from the same flaws.
When looking at the context of this album in Finch's history, I'm not sure what I was expecting.
What It Is to Burn seemed to be a lot better received among their core fan base, while
Say Hello to Sunshine really showed all the musical potential the band is capable of. In
Back to Oblivion, Finch only reach that potential a couple times. I was under the impression that they would aim to strike a balance in between their two previous albums. Several of the songs, such as the title track, "Picasso Trigger", and "Two Guns To the Temple" find this balance, but the album loses momentum in the second half and ends very forgettably. This release as a whole feels too hollow and lacking in substance to really provide the full satisfaction that I was hoping for, but the first half has enough quality to make this feel like a strong EP.
