For the Fallen Dreams - Relentless - Review

Hearing For the Fallen Dreams’ first album ‘Changes’, I had built up pretty high hopes for their new album ‘Relentless’. However, upon listening to it for the first time, I was just a little bit disappointed. I had established some very keen enthusiasm for their first album, and this one is a little different. But don’t fret; as I listened to it a few more times, it has grown on me. Really its only flaws are evident when comparing it to its last album, which I honestly think was better in some respects. Take my word though, that standing all by itself, it is a great album.

It opens with a silly little intro track, but after that, ‘Perceptions’ spells a new, angrier sound for the band. I quickly noticed that they have drastically reduced their emphasis on the raspy, high toned guitars that made them who they were throughout ‘Changes’, and replaced it with more background tweedling. If you don’t know what I mean, check out Misery Signals. But anyway, I was caught singing along to the line ‘Our dreams won’t die, they’ll never go away’ the first time I heard it. ‘A Plethora Of’ continues on a catchy note with a cool guitar riff to open it and carry through the verse. This pulls into a well built up breakdown that made me smile. And finally, after finishing up there, you get to hear some beautiful, clean harmonies that really bring a welcome improvement to their sound. It gives a little meaning to my “classy metal” moniker.

End the sap fest with the fist pumping ‘Nightmares’. It gruffs the album right up, squeezing out that goosebump-giving rage that jams you up something fierce. Even still, it quiets down in the chorus with some clean vocals you may recognize. Courtesy of none other than Jeremy McKinnon of A Day To Remember. The anger continues in ‘December Everyday’. They whip a few old school punk beats as well, feeling a bit more metalcore again for a second. At the end, a point of impression is the brilliantly coordinated transitions between yelling and growling from lead vocalist Dylan Richter. He has obviously improved since last year as well, removing a lot of his hardcore yell sound from his screams. A welcome fix in my book.

'Defiance' shows off another choice breakdown. A neat thing about FTFD is that the backbone of most of their songs are constant breakdowns behind the rhythm, but when they want you to notice one, they’ll jazz it up so it’s not just a generic chugging session. Even if they’re not always that technical, they keep them fast paced and energetic, and usually add vocals half way through so you don’t get bored. Also, drummer Andrew Tkaczyk intros them nicely with his technical fills I loved back in ‘Changes’.

The rest pretty much goes on like that, but for your interest: ‘Smoke Signals has a short guitar solo, ‘In Sincerity’ is a prelude with echo-y guitars and clean harmonies, ‘Two Twenty Two’ is super pissed off, and ‘Resurface the End’ gives you something to bang your heads to. But ‘The Pain Loss’ I didn’t think did the album justice as an ending song. It just doesn’t feel like the album should end after it. Although that could be because the album is only 37:36 long! I mean seriously, is this the way CD’s are being made now? What am I paying for with only half an hour of tunes to hear?

Anyway, as far as anyone listening can tell, this is a pretty sick piece of work. But some of the things they took out, I wish they hadn’t. It doesn’t catch my ears quite like ‘Changes’ did, but that’s just me.

A far as the lyrics go, there is a lot of negativity in the words. They deal with depression and confidence issues, how to deal with the problems in the world. They are very poetically written, but it would take some studying to decipher the more specific meanings. I doubt most people will care anyway since the vocals are mostly hard to understand before you look them up.
Take a listen and find your own opinion, but I can’t accept this album as much of a step forward. They changed some things for the better, like the clean vocals and the catchy guitar riffs, but their old sound has come and gone. ‘Relentless’ places more focus on angry chugging than meaningful melodies. Maybe if you haven’t heard their old album you won’t see my point, but then again I would say don’t miss out on it. In the end they’re still For the Fallen Dreams, and I love ‘em. I’m giving ‘Relentless’ the benefit of the doubt with a solid 4 out of 5 Napkins.

Artist: For the Fallen Dreams
Album: Relentless
Label: Rise Records
Release: July 21, 2009
Length: 37:36
Rating: 4/5 Napkins