Review Summary: Ex-For The Fallen Dreams vocalist Dylan Richter returns to the metalcore scene with a promising project
We all know what we are going to hear when Dylan Richter is behind a microphone. He is of course most well-known as the former vocalist of metalcore stalwarts ‘For The Fallen Dreams’ with his discography ranging from the excellent ‘Relentless’, the average ‘Back Burner’ and the poor ‘Wasted Youth’. People are going to wonder whether this is worth a listen with the variance of quality of his previous work, but l can assure you metalcore fans, this is worth a go.
The band consists of Richter and Jason Spencer who is an ex guitarist of the band ‘Wilson’. Now l won’t lie to you, l have never heard of ‘Wilson’ so l was pleasantly surprised to hear the guitar work contained on this EP is solid. ‘Keep Me Down’ features a groovy riff that any metalcore outfit would be happy to have produced and the rest of the song is carried well by Richter. Richter’s vocals of course are the main reason why this is worth checking out as it’ll give fans of FTFD a sense of nostalgia while listening to it.
Richter also experiments much more with his clean singing voice which has improved since his FTFD run. His harsh vocals are definitely much stronger than his clean voice but it is an admirable effort from the front man with the choruses of ‘Sediment’ and ‘On Your Own Accord’ being a good example of his clean voice. As mentioned before, the guitar riffs are par for the course for metalcore with some breakdowns chucked in for good measure, but they are nothing to be complained about. EP highlight ‘Keep Me Down’ contains a nice riff and some intricate playing throughout.
The production was handled by the band members themselves and the mix is clear. The guitar tone is nice and sludgy and the vocals are produced in a way that makes them sound rough but that definitely suits Richter’s voice. The programmed drums fill the gaps in the songs well and do their job.
Fans of metalcore will find familiar sounds contained in this EP. This is nothing ground-breaking and it takes very few risks, but it is well worth the time if you are a fan of the genre and the Richter FTFD-era.
