Review Summary: An early 2000s post hardcore gem
Beloved's time was short in the musical world. Their first and only LP was a treat, even if it took several listens for the tracks to really start standing out individually. The transitions are very smooth between the melodic and the post hardcore, and, sometimes, they were so well done it took me a second to realize they had shifted into the heavier sections or back into the melodic areas.
I do wish there was more mingling between the dual vocals, though. The screaming is very well done and the cleans are decent enough, but it's just too bad they hardly ever mixed the two by swapping back and forth or overlapping them (except for a few parts of “Death to Traitors”). The singing is always with the more melodic parts and the harsh vocals are usually paired with the heavier parts.
There are a few times when the melodic and heavier parts are mixed in together with the instrumentation, except the fact that they are all done almost exactly the same. “Watching the Lines Blur”, "Rise and Fall", “Inner Pattern” are good examples, having the rhythm guitar hitting the heavy, repeated palm muted riff, while the lead guitar plays a distorted lead that rings out over the top of it. But hey, if some is good, then more must be better, right?
All in all,
Failure On is a really great listen. The vocals, guitars and drums all do a fine job, but the bass does seem like it got a little lost in the mix. It’s just too bad this was Beloved's only full-length release. They might have had something really special going on if they had a chance to make another album or two to figure out what kind of sound they wanted and have some musical growth. Instead, we will just have to settle for looking back fondly on ten tracks of post-hardcore goodness and wonder what could have been.
