Review Summary: I’m not throwing up my Rawkfist, but I sorta felt it when they dropped this.
This was the rage for young, brainwashed Evangelical twerps back in the day, but the question remains: is it good music? Imagine my surprise when I popped it on and it wasn’t terrible. Somehow, this album has survived the test of time. If their discography before this is a crashing plane, Welcome to the Masquerade is the passenger that brought a parachute and is also a professional survivor, who made it to an island and was sitting on a lawn chair sipping margaritas by the time a rescue boat arrived. Let’s break it down homie. Phenomenon was a product of its time, the Art of Breaking is kinda ***, but this album is kinda legit… kinda.
The first song promises a good album with a verse that sounds almost like Disturbed wrote it. The second song attempts to fire it up, and it successfully bumps, but sounds almost as cornball as Rawkfist. Bring Me To Life sounds like a repeat of the first song, with the already predictable chugga chugga CHOO CHOOOO guitars (which is exactly how they sound). The angsty sections are very reminiscent of early Linkin Park which is HILARIOUS cause TFK can’t hold a candle to Linkin Park. The common theme that joins songs together is good choruses with decent, cookie cutter riffs, but sadly, that’s where TFK drew the line and said, “Nope! We refuse to evolve more than this! Just shut iiiiiittttttt!!!”.
Once you’ve heard the first three songs you’ve heard the rest of the album so if you like those songs you’ll probably like more of the same ***. The formula is honestly catchy most of the time, and slightly less cringey than previous albums. They even branch out sometimes, with a buncha softer *** like Forward Motion (a pleasantly melodious track with a relaxing chorus). The vocal department is also greatly improved with the auto-tune on point, and the singer actually sounds pretty great (the yell/scream bits not so much). In summary, you get an album with some decently polished, decently bumpin’, alt metal/nu-metal/rock songs. It’s still a little cringey, it’s still TFK, they’re not exactly Beethoven, but they made an engaging album here, and it’s possibly their best one.
