Review Summary: 4.5/4 time is never a good idea
As I first clicked the play button for this EP to listen to the first song I thought to myself, what's better than discovering and reviewing new talent in underground music culture? However those joyous thoughts were quickly and definitely crushed within minutes as I discovered that Forever Fallen's talent is to piss on the idea of accomplished music.
The EP begins with the song the EP is named after, 'Streetlights'. Within the first ten seconds I had heard the entirety of the song, lead guitar playing about 5 notes on one string (Completely drowning out the rhythm guitar and bass), the same few chords never changing, and whiny vocals singing nonsensical lyrics. Of course, nonsensical lyrics aren't always a bad thing, but the majority of the time it's just the one word 'Streetlights' being repeated. On the upside, the drumming was pretty impressive throughout, and I focused on that rather than the rest of the song which was just the same over and over again. Then the guitar solo came. "Great!" I thought, "A chance for the guitarist to shine!" The guitarist definitely showed he had the capabilities to shine, but failed the actual shining. 4 Bars of the same technique and notes, followed by another 4 bars of a different technique with slight variations, then he resorted to tapping (Which made it sound amateurish) and finished off with the only slightly interesting part of the song, by which point I'd lost interest and had started listening to the drumming again.
I believed this EP could only get better after such a poor start. The next song was actually better, but only at making me cringe as it was the most awful song I have heard after listening to get crunk by Brokencyde. I couldn't work out if the band were trying to play in 4.5/4 time or were just really badly out of time with each other. This song 'One to fall back on' was somehow even more repetitive than Streetlights, and to make matters worse, the drummer had lost his ability to drum well and was out of time 90% of the song. Once again the rhythm guitar and bass were drowned out by the lead playing the same 3 notes over and over again, and it was at this point I realised this was a concept EP; The concept in this case being Repetition. The song sounded exactly the same as Streetlights except they substituted the drummers talent with the ability to make you want to chew your own ears off. The solo in this song was even worse than the one in streetlights, relying solely on tapping to try and show off the guitarists ability, and failing miserably. Then the ultimate song killer made an appearance: Autotune. Acceptable in chart music as it is considered a norm nowadays. In anything related to metal (Even if the relation is very small) it sounds terrible and there is no reason to use it.
I almost decided not to listen to the next song for fear of my ear drums committing suicide, but didn't want to give up, so I played the next track, 'Therapy'. I was pleasantly surprised! For ten seconds. Acoustic guitar chords started to play and I was relieved that this wasn't the same repetitive crap I'd just listened to. Then the midi violins came in. And the singing. And then I realised this song used 4 chords over and over again. Thankfully, the guitarist decided to alter the rhythm of the chords at regular points, so it wasn't as repetitive as the last two songs. However, this didn't make up for the mixing making the midi violins to quiet or the fact the backing singer managed to make the lead vocalist sound good for once by being pathetic.
The final track, 'Give, Receive, Goodbye' started and I immediately thought, "I've heard this somewhere before..." Unsurprisingly I had. It was the same intro to 'One to fall back on', but changing notes each bar. The singing also sounded exactly the same as on 'One to fall back on'. And 'Streetlights'. And 'Therapy' for that matter. This one however after the intro wasn't quite as repetitive as the others, but was still more repetitive than most other songs. I listened to the the song for about 2 minutes and 40 seconds when something which sounded like a break happened. It might as well have just been another verse though as it wasn't very different to the rest of the song. It also brought back the intro of the song/Repeating riff of 'One to fall back on', showing the bands lack of originality once and for all. At the end of the break, the singer tries to make his voice sound agressive, but only succeeds in sounding like an idiot. Not to my surprise at all, another solo came along. Miraculously, the start of the solo sounded quite good, and wasn't very technical, proving how the guitarist completely cocks up by trying to show off. The, once again unsurprisingly the solo broke down into repetitive uses of technique and repeated melodies which their guitarist would be famous for.
To sum up my review for maybe the one person who reads this in the next year, this band has real talent. Unfortunately, they don't use it for making creative, accomplished music. Instead, they waste this talent on trying to sound like what people want to hear nowadays, which is simple formulaic music that's easy to listen to and understand. The best part about this band is the drummer, and even then only on two songs. The guitarist has the ability to shine, but wastes it on uncreative, technique driven solos and repetitive riffs. The singer sounds like he's just hurt himself and is trying not to cry about it 100% of the time, letting loose his painful misery on nonsensical lyrics (Not always sung to fit with the song). This bands also might as well have 3 members, as the Rhythm Guitar and Bass are completely drowned out by the singing, Lead guitar and drums.
If this is the next musical revolution to be after the Hip-Hop, R&B and Rap we have nowadays, I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
