Review Summary: Partying harder than a funeral ceremony
In the world of Metalcore, Fronz and his ragtag bunch of partying band members from "Attila" have always been able to scruff off criticism of their music for a multitude of reasons; for every person saying that their music is "irritating, generic and crass" there's another person saying that it's "not meant to be taken seriously, they're just having fun, it's meant to be party music." Putting Attila as a whole aside, there's no doubt that Fronz is a solid technician behind the microphone; so when I heard that he was making a solo album, I expected at the very least a catchy distraction that I could listen to a few times then completely forget about. Unfortunately this is not the case, as Fronz's debut solo album takes every bad aspect about his vocal style, lyricism and influences to an almost comically exaggerated level with only a few saving graces along the way.
Fronz's vocals have decidedly taken a turn for the worse here as a multitude of the tracks see him utilizing weird annunciations, feigned accents and occasionally some barbaric tapir grunts straight out of Far Cry 3; this is presumably to make up for the lack of variety that the mix of screams, shouts and rapping brought forth in Attila's music (which was arguably limited). While his speed can be impressive at times and his flow is acceptable, he never truly hones in on his potential. The lyricism is the same as ever, intoxicated rabble-rousing, high octane, low safety antics, and shout outs to gentlemen and ladies who feel the music is disreputable. The only time a hook ever draws you in is during Tyler Carter's cameo in the song "They Still Talk."
What truly surprised me as well was how boring the backing beats and musical arrangements were; Scout from Issues produced them, and barely any of his influence even seems to be remotely present. While cleanly produced, the produced material is loud, grating and doesn't sit well with the vocals. Some songs attempt to go somewhere with novel sounds and the like, but it builds up frustratingly only to fall flat on its face.
Fronz more than likely won't care, as day one sales probably recouped the production costs four times over (as he owns his own label, he retains all of his own profits bar the money he most likely had to pay to Scout, Tyler, etc). What is shown here is a money-making machine with a lot of business potency, but no musical substance.
