Review Summary: Fallenmania, Part 21
Welcome to this next episode of “How did artists previously seen in this series follow their fallenamniac album”. Today’s album, “Rebuild” by The Letter Black, is not so obviously fallenmaniac and in many ways, not as entertaining as its predecessor.
Not bad, just forgettable. “Sick Charade” is a solid opener, with a heavy and energetic riff and a catchy chorus, as well as Sarah Anthony’s powerful singing and screaming. The riff feels a little Going Under-ish, but not completely, because it simply sounds like the kind of generic riff you hear in every generic song. The song’s overall melody has the same problem. Unfortunately, this song is the album in a nutshell: so generic that it doesn’t just sound like Evanescence, it sounds like everybody else, and it’s not catchy enough to make up for it.
Similarly, “Found” is such a generic ballad that it also sounds like everyone else. The violins in the background may be the song’s only interesting part. “Break Out” has some nice energy and call-and-response between Sarah and Mark Anthony. But I’ve heard people say it sounds like Skillet’s “Hero”. I have to agree, and the comparison isn’t exactly in The Letter Black’s favor.
However, there are a few other interesting parts. “Pain Killer” goes from a soft intro to a catchy rock song with nice guitar effects, but the “I’m killing pain in the name of love” chorus gets old quickly. “Up From the Ashes” has a heavy riff, and possibly one of the catchiest melodies on the album, as well as some infectious energy, and a chorus where Sarah shows off the power in her voice. By contrast, “Shattered” doesn’t try to be as heavy, but it’s catchy, and it has some of the best duets between Sarah and Mark. “Branded” has Mark’s best vocal performance. “Outside Looking In” has a lot of melancholy, and some obvious fallenmaniac inspiration in the instrumentation and vocal melodies. Of course, it’s not really as good as its obvious inspiration.
The title track has a nice, distorted and dark riff, and some catchy melodies, but it gets a little repetitive. I like the heavy and dark tone of “Smothering Walls”, but the usual “God help me” type of lyrics get just as repetitive. At least, the part where Sarah screams “Deliver me!” was nice, even though she obviously stole that from Flyleaf and Eowyn, as well as the riff from a few Three Days Grace songs. “Devil on Your Back” has some pretty cool screams, and tries to be heavier, but the heavy songs on this album sound too similar to each other. Again, this album is rather repetitive, and most of its ideas seem too obviously borrowed from someone else.
Here’s how “Rebuild” compares to “Hanging on by a Thread”: it’s heavier, and Sarah’s voice sounds great, so it can be considered an improvement. The good songs from “Rebuild” have just as much energy, and are just as catchy and memorable as my favorite songs from “Hanging on by a Thread”. But there aren’t too many songs from this album I can call good or memorable, except maybe “Up from the Ashes” or “Outside Looking In”. “Hanging” wasn’t exactly a great album either, but at least, songs like “Hanging on by a Thread”, “My Disease”, “Believe” and “Invisible” are memorable, and they sound different enough from each other to make the album feel varied, creative. They’re nothing like the repetitive parts of “Rebuild”, where the band refuses to use more than one type of riff or lyrics. They’re fun, while “Rebuild” often sounds so dull.
More relevant to the theme of this series, they were obviously written to copy Evanescence, but at least they’re copying a specific artist, one with a strong musical identity. “Rebuild” just copies every vaguely successful rock/metal band of the early 2010s. That can be explained by the fact that as the 2010s rolled around, trends from the past decade like Fallenmania were not considered cool anymore. So while some Fallenamniacs disappeared or changed their sound completely, some like The Letter Black made their fallenmaniac inspiration less obvious. This album, and the next ones, have the same generic, not quite fallenamniac rock/metal sound, which has kept this band’s career going until 2023. Yes, it’s so strange that The Letter Black, of all Fallenmaniacs, had the longest career. Maybe because that’s what the 2010s audience wanted: simple radio rock music that had some vague connection to Fallenmania. Or because The Letter Black are a Christian rock band, and the Christian fanbases are extremely faithful, so to speak: they’ll never abandon a band, no matter how trends shift around them. The Letter Black are not the only Fallenmaniac Christian acts to have had a long and productive career, and not the only subtle Fallenmaniac from the 2010s and beyond, but that’s for another day.
