In
fact it is almost a miracle that former Killswitch Engage frontman, Howard Jones
has recorded a new album. If you want to know what mr. Jones has been through,
you better look it up elsewhere. It will not be a surprise that the lyrics on
this album are about sickeness, despair, depression and loneliness. The
production is done by Machine Head's Logan Mader and Howard has recruited
members who have All Shall Perish, Fear Factory and Bleeding Through on their
palmares.
The
guitar parts are of an excellent quality and the songs have a lot of variety.
Sometimes fast, hard and heavy, then again more melodic and modern sounding. You
can expect a kind of mix of metalcore reminding of Killswitch Engage and groovy
thrash in a bit of Lamb of God style, but with some catchy melodic clean singing
parts. Especially the clean singing of Howard surprised me, he does a fine job
there. "For the Dead and Broken", "It's Over" and "Crawl
from the Dark" are a
bit softer and have a very modern sound. The vocals in combination with the
music in "Crawn from the Dark" even reminds me a bit of Faith No More.
For
those who like it fast and heavy with the typical grinding and growling vocals
there is also enough to enjoy, take for example the track "A Mind Insane", which
goes full speed ahead, but you have to be open for some clean more melodic
stuff. Another track that I like is "I am the Nothing", in which you hear some
emotional singing, you can hear the desperation. "Shut it Down" is again a
groovy metal-thrashcore track, with the usual metalcore screams and aggression.
The final track is one that has a very dramatic and desperate sound, which made
me think of Type O Negative/Faith No More combi a few times.
A
very variable album, with good songs and a combination of different styles and
that sees to it that the music on this album is not easy to label.
