Review Summary: Fanboys, rejoice! For I have come to spread the Word and save you from the dark. Or not.
How and why this band ever garnered a following is beyond me. They were only around a few years, released two extremely poor albums, and then broke up. The worst thing about it was that people were actually SAD about them breaking up. I just don’t understand.
When Goodbye Means Forever is IKTPQ’s first album, and is some of the most uninspired and dull hardcore I have ever heard. These guys make Parkway Drive look like hardcore gods. You’re probably wondering what makes them so bad, and I can answer you in one word: everything. From the music, to the vocals, to the guitars, to the music, just everything. The only thing which I can say I liked about this album was a single tune in one of the songs. Other than that, everything was horrible.
The first thing to point out about the album is that there is absolutely no variety whatsoever. Every song follows the same formula, has the exact same sound as the song before it and after it, and falls to the same problems as the rest of the songs. If IKTPQ had released the song Pointed to My Heart by itself and called it their debut album, I would have rated it higher. That is the one song which I enjoyed, due to a nice melody that it had. This sets it apart from all the other songs, mainly because none of the other songs even have any sort of decent melody. All there is is just a load of crappy breakdowns, and horrible vocal combinations.
To its own disadvantage, this album has some of the worst breakdowns I’ve ever heard. None of them are even memorable, and the fact that each song has at least 327 of them makes it a very bad thing. In this regard, the musicianship and songwriting ability of this band is just mediocre. There is no progression whatsoever; the band is stuck in a rut, a rut in which they were stuck in until their much rejoiced break-up. Well, I rejoiced. In When Goodbye Means Forever, the band opts to throw technicality, melody, and their reputation as musicians, right out the window. This album is a shoddy reproduction of every other hardcore album to have ever existed, and was simply ‘manufactured’ to appeal to the countless dumbarses out there who’ll lap up every single word that comes out of Crafter’s mouth.
This brings us to the vocals. Oh, oh, oh. Michael Crafter is the vocalist, if that’s what you call it these days. His harsh vocals are some of THE worst I have heard, even worse than Anders Friden of In Flames (who I think is one of the worst vocalists in metal, period). There is no variation or diversity in Crafter’s voice at all; he retains the exact same tone and pitch for the entire album. By the third song, you become really sick of it. The worst part about it is that Crafter actually tries to sing. I haven’t emphasized the word ‘tries’, but I should have. His singing is absolutely horrible. Combine this with his horrible harsh vocals, and what you have is an album with crappy vocals.
To top it off, I’ll mention the lyrics. They are very bad, very bad indeed. Think cheesy, heart-tearing lyrics done completely wrong, and you’ve basically summed up When Goodbye Means Forever. I won’t go into details, but I’ll point out one of the song titles: ‘Roses, Post Cards & Machine Gun Kisses’. Need I say more?
Overall, there is no reason why anybody with an idea about music should listen to this album. Everything on it is terrible, and the way in which it’s done is even worse. You’d be much better off NOT listening to this album. If you must have hardcore, get Unearth, Converge, even Parkway Drive, but never even bother to think about listening to this album/band. Sorry fanboys, this album sucks.
