From the moment ‘Dying breed’ comes crashing in on the back of a chunky riff, it’s clear that this is going to be a very contemporary sounding album. That is not to say that it is specifically bad, but when compared to the masterpieces recently released by Chthonic, Paradise Lost, or Katatonia it’s hard to imagine listening to this in ten months, let alone ten years. Where those albums have tapped into a rich vein of timelessness, it’s a quality that Five Finger Death Punch rarely even aspire to, let alone achieve. Heartily endorsed by a number of magazines, it is, perhaps, time for a more sober assessment of the record that everybody, apparently, is talking about.
‘Dying breed’ opens the album on a surging riff that will be chunkily familiar to anyone who caught up with Killswitch Engage and their ilk. Equally the vocals are, predictably enough, throat shreddingly raw on the verse and then overtly melodic on the chorus – a trick that is becoming more than a little tired, although it’s hard to ignore the fact that vocalist Ivan Moody is clearly very good at what he does. Setting the band further ahead of the pack is the soaring guitar solo that adds a touch of class but it’s still a very safe formula that the band employ.
‘Hard to see’ does, at least, pull away from metal-core’s scream-sing-scream-louder equation, with a clean vocal throughout, but the hints of Linkin Park-esque electronica are less welcome, even if the guitars do rage away somewhat satisfactorily. Then there’s ‘Bulletproof’, which opens on a fantastically heavy guitar riff coupled with a thundering double kick assault. With Ivan’s Phil Anselmo-esque muttered vocals expanding into a mighty roar for the chorus, it unfortunately splutters out in a welter of harmonised vocals that plague so many modern metal releases.
Competing for best track on the album is ‘no one gets left behind’, which is hard hitting enough and features a chunky bridge section that hints at a band capable of more than they offer on this release. ‘Crossing over’ is the obligatory ballad that will no doubt pollute MTV for months to come, but in truth it’s nothing that Stone Sour weren’t already doing some seven years ago – and it wasn’t exactly original then. That said, there are some nice guitar flourishes (including a great solo) that stand apart from the mediocrity that otherwise exudes from every faux-agonized syllable.
‘Burn it down’ returns to heavier pastures but, having apparently got over their desire to feature on every radio show in the Western hemisphere, 5FDP rock a whole lot harder here, Ivan producing a grime-encrusted vocal performance that thrills as much as it surprises. Equally out of left field is ‘far from home’, which harks back to the days of Extreme and Poison with its un-reconstituted ballad structure and OTT strings. It’s a touch cheesy, sure, but it actually works far better than ‘crossing over’, as you get the impression that this is the kind of music the band actually listen to, rather than feel they should make.
‘Falling in hate’ offers a more complex guitar riff than the band have hitherto deployed, veering almost into Slayer territory but coupled with an off-kilter time signature that keeps the listener’s attention. Once again the vocals are harder hitting than in the opening stages of the record and the song is all the more successful for it. It’s followed by ‘My own hell’ – probably the closest the band come to Slipknot, with its seething riff and schizophrenic vocals, while ‘walk away’ is more of a hard-rock track with a suitably distorted intro giving way to a heart-felt verse. It’s a catchy song, with a rousing chorus that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
‘Canto 34’ opens with interesting guitar sounds and then utilises a choppy central riff along with a pure old-school guitar solo to good effect and, being an instrumental, it gives the band a good opportunity to show off their chops. ‘Bad company’ is a reasonable enough cover but Ivan Moody, as talented as he is, is no match for Paul Rodgers and one has to question the relevance of note-perfect takes on classic songs anyway. ‘War is the answer’ closes the disc which, while suitably heavy, leaves you a little surprised at quite how little you can remember from the last hour of music.
So in the final assessment 5FDP is neither as good as everybody else seems to be making out, nor as bad as you might imagine. It’s a solid and well-performed slab of contemporary rock that will no doubt get a few spins on your deck / mp3 player / cd player before being discarded in favour of something with rather more substance and rather less style. The production is perfectly serviceable and the band has clearly spent a lot of time honing their craft but in the end you can’t help longing for something more original.
Whether they will become as massive as other reviewers have proclaimed remains to be seen, but 5FDP would be better served in taking their undeniable talent and actually writing some songs worthy of it, rather than pandering to the stylistically devoid metal-core masses with an album that shouts plenty but says very little. Disappointing.
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