Review Summary: I love Haste the Day. I hate When Everything Falls.
Haste the Day –
When Everything Falls
At the time of recording,
Haste the Day was:
Jimmy Ryan – Vocals
Brennan Chaulk – Guitar, Vocals
Jason Barnes – Guitar
Mike Murphy – Bass, Vocals
Devin Chaulk – Drums
2004’s
Burning Bridges was a definitive statement in the usually bland metalcore scene. This wasn’t because it set out to be something groundbreaking, and it wasn’t, but simply because of its consistency and the ridiculous amount of energy frontman Jimmy Ryan brought to the table. Whether or not one enjoyed his harsh screaming is a matter of opinion, but it was one of the few albums in the genre where the emotion wasn’t superficial, in a sense that the pain and agony in each scream was ridiculously evident. Simply put, Jimmy Ryan was a beast, and the rest of the band accomplished just enough behind him to make for a solid debut.
An awesome debut doesn’t always assure an above average follow up, and
When Everything Falls is an absolute sophomore slump, with seemingly little or no effort put into the writing and recording process. Gone is the shamefully raw production, gone are the swift, rabid songs and sections that appeared on
Burning Bridges, and gone was the band’s exuberant personality displayed previously. Overall, the instrumental work is about the same, and Jimmy’s vocals, while glossed-up here, remain just as devastating. The entire album comes off as wholly contrived though, with boring to bad songwriting that is equally repetitive, and production that places too much emphasis on the vocals and not nearly enough on the instrumental aspect. After a full run-through of the CD, it is painstakingly difficult to tell one track from another, save maybe for the title track and
Walk On. With this release,
Haste the Day fell into the tasteless metalcore trap that has taken numerous bands that similarly showed much promise.
With the raw production gone on this recording being the major standout, the other would have to be a significant lack of breakdowns. There are a few every once in a while, but they a much shorter as well. At first I took this as a positive quality, but everything sounds so alike that after multiple listens I was left yearning for their signature, chaotic breakdowns. With guitar riffs being restricted to short, simplistic, and choppy and an expectedly non-existent bass, all the music on here is not only powered by Jimmy’s screams and the rest of the band’s clean vocals, but the music on here Is those vocals. Jimmy will essentially scream for a full-minute, give or take a few seconds, and then another band member will step in and sing a melodic chorus. Overall the chorus work is solid, certainly catchy, but in the end it again sounds obscenely similar each and every time.
When Everything Falls isn’t entirely ******, as it starts off with a group of above-average songs before dipping drastically near the middle all the way to the finish.
Walk On and
When Everything Falls both have outstanding choruses that are frequently and currently embedded in my head, and
If I Could See is a lot of fun as well. The band’s cover of
Long Way Down to close out the album is fervently abhorred, yet I find some appeal to it. This is possibly because it sounds very different from anything else on here, regardless of whether or not it stays true to the
Goo Goo Dolls’ classic.
Altogether,
Haste the Day’s second effort was disappointing and rather poor. An individual song here and there is still enjoyable, but there are a few horrid tracks (
For a Lifetime is disgusting) and again, almost every track is identical. Nothing about the instruments stands out, with only an occasional decent drum fill or guitar riff, and all the vocals border on excessive. It’s a shame that Jimmy Ryan’s departure had to come after this release.
Pros:
It has Jimmy Ryan, he can scream
Catchy choruses
Cons:
Instruments; they aren’t necessarily terrible, but they aren’t exciting at all
Repetitive
Short
Recommended Tracks:
Walk On
When Everything Falls
If I Could See
Score: 2/5
and Pressure The Hinges was really generic 
