Review Summary: For Today hits hard with their most direct project to date.
This is For Today. A For Today album will be a Christian album, and a very blunt and direct one at that. They are not a "It's Christian but you can take it however you want" type of band. Most secular fans will not enjoy the lyrics to any of their records. You have been warned.
Now for my review:
The EP starts off with a strong and heavy track, entitled, "From Zion". The first 45 seconds are For Today's "hype you up" highlight of their career. From then on, the song continues to build, as most of their songs do.
The EP then flows to "Crown of Thorns", which was the first single released off of the record. much like the first song, it builds. This is a theme in most of their songs. The track from start to finish is a strong song.
The next track is their second single off of the record, entitled, "Flesh and Blood". This track is the most dynamic of the 4 heavy tracks, featuring more of clean vocalist, Ryan Leitru.
The last heavy song is entitled "Open Heaven". This track follows the path of the others, musically and lyrically. Being a band that generally makes concept records, this is their most direct. Never straying from the point they are getting across. The lyrics of this record (or any For Today record) will not be popular with their atheist listeners.
The final track on the EP is an acoustic version of the fan favorite, "Fearless". This is a completely new experience for the listener and it went over very well for me. The song is vocally led by lead guitarist/clean vocalist Ryan Leitru and he does well. This EP utilized his vocals more than any of their previous projects, which was a great addition.
If there is one complaint, it is that they have a bit of a formula with the structure of the songs that ring familiar to "Immortal". I give the structures of the songs a 3 and the musical content a 4 split to a 3.5/5.
This project is For Today's most direct and hard-hitting endeavor to date. With each listen, this album proves to be one of my favorite metalcore releases in 2013.
