Review Summary: They're well on their way to blowing up big and following fellow Florida natives A Day To Remember's foot steps in become next years break out band of course assuming their next album builds on what is a strong start.
"We've got a problem on our hands" and it's that no one has given The Midnight Life's debut effort"Aslan's Fury" a listen. And that is a serious problem for anyone whose looking for a solid CD. Sure it was released earlier this year in March but who cares it deserves a listen as soon as possible especially since all year long theres been one horrid release after another. Ex: Wires...And the Concept of Breathing, Those We Leave Behind, From First To Last, This War Is Ours, Where Myth Fades To Legend, Beneath the Massacre, Suicide Season, Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder. So many let downs through out the year.
The Midnight Life isn't going to reinvent the genre with their post-hardcore pop punk blend and they aren't going to shock anyone with originality with their all too familiar song structures. But they will absolutely pull off the whole New Found Glory vocals and As I Lay Dying breakdowns pretty well. They do what so many other bands are try to do and most of these bands fall flat on their faces. Their lyrics are solid, their vocals get the job done, but its their musicianship and honest effort heard on the record that separates them from the rest. They pull off some pretty impressive riffs and strong drumming. Another thing to be noted is how they move from breakdown to chorus perfectly and have gang vocals right where they should be.
Aslan's Fury is made of 9 songs and just falls short of 40 minutes. Well not exactly there is an instrumental called "The Anatomy Of" that is almost 2 minutes long and the last track "This is Home Team" ends at 3:57 but goes on till 13:33 in silence so that makes the CD a little over 28 minutes. The first track "From The Ground Up" opens up with a breakdown and starts with the lead singer doing some growls and screams and leads the listener to believe they are about to hear another TDWP rip off but they aren't Christian or signed to rise so that isn't happening. Then at around the 49 second mark the slow breakdown ends and your greeted by those New Found Glory vocals I was talking about before. The lyrics for "From The Ground Up" pretty much set the tone for what they're all about "We're gonna give it all we've got/To keep you glued to the sound of the stereo (oh oh)/And away from the sounds of a scene". The next track "Measures Can't Help You Here" follows the same song structure as the first track but that isn't terrible since they both are stand out tracks on Aslan's Fury. The chorus here is just as infectious as the one from the first track. You'll be hearing these choruses in your head long after the CD ends. The Midnight Life really know how to make a catchy song. They also build up their songs quiet well reaching the climax and smoothly hitting the next epic breakdown. So after the first two tracks which are two of the CDs stand out tracks you pretty much can decide if your going to love this album or completely hate it. Now after the first two tracks the ones that follow aren't anything to special none are bad but they aren't the CDs best. If you stick around till the last two tracks you'll listen to the CDs two other stand out tracks "Dangerous Maneuvers" and This is Home Team". The lyrics in these two songs are some of the albums best. "Dangerous Maneuvers" is pretty much a call out to all the other bands in their genre and in the whole myspace band scene "If music is your weapon of choice/Then your gun is jammed/So try to fire away/You`re writing the same cliche lines/And no one understands". Then "This is Home Team" closes out the CD very strong and catchy pretty much sums up the whole CD in 4 quick minutes. It opens with an extremely catchy guitar riff and goes into the lead singer yelling out lyrics that will have kids at everyone of their shows chanting while fist pumping.
So after listening to the CD I'm left with mixed emotions, questions, and most of all a lot of hope. The CD was definitely not what I expected. I was expecting another terrible mediocre at best album from a band that doesn't have a huge following not even on myspace. They manage to convince me and hopefully anyone who gives this a listen that they can hold their own in an already over populated music scene. They don't over do the gang vocals (thank god) but they do have a lot of breakdowns but mixed in with the extremely catchy choruses in practically every track they manage to conceal that fact lovely.They're debut full length is another notch on Florida's music scene that always seems to breed decent new bands.They're well on their way to blowing up big and following fellow Florida natives A Day To Remember's foot steps in become next years break out band of course assuming their next album builds on what is a strong start.
