Album Review: The Fall Of Troy - In The Unlikely Event
Since its inception, Mukilteo, Washington’s very own progressive power trio The Fall Of Troy has attempted to blaze its own infernos of musical wizardry. Their key to success? They use different lighters each time. Each of the band’s earlier albums (2005’s Doppelganger and 2007’s Manipulator) offered some things unique from most other bands. This is the same case for the trio’s newest slice of post-hardcore prophecy, In The Unlikely Event. The Fall Of Troy’s trademark erratic guitar shredding, combined with off-tempo and brutally abrupt changes, secures these prog-rock and King Crimson descendants an incendiary place in today’s music scene. Unfortunately, at times The Fall Of Troy reinvent its own wheels a bit too much and, ironically enough, stall in place as opposed to moving forward.
Making his debut with the band on this record, newcomer bassist Frank Ene does a great job filling in the shoes for the former, Tim Ward. With that said, the two biggest improvements that follow the band are the maturity of guitarist/vocalist Thomas Erak’s vocals as well as the quality of recording as a whole. Produced by Terry Date (Alice In Chains, Pantera), In The Unlikely Event certainly carries much more depth and perspective sonically than the band’s earlier records. This certainly helps the band’s over-the-top soundscapes very much, and with Date’s touch of gentle finesse added to these guys’ musical cyclone, it’s certainly a good match made in musical heaven.
“Panic Attack!” starts off the record, and Erak zeroes in on what he does best guitar-wise. Rocking his wah pedal back and forth between drummer Andrew Forsman’s drums and belting out banshee-like wails, the trio craft their catchiest single since “F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.” Thick, crunchy chords and abrupt solos bounce off the speakers like coffee addicts in a padded cell. For the album’s opener, The Fall Of Troy promise a banging battering ram of excellent precision straight through the barn door, and leave no time for the splinters to drop.
Without wasting any time, “Straight-Jacket Keelhauled” kicks the listener right in the face with a size thirteen boot of send-up, speedy sludge metal. Ene and Erak’s interplay vocal screeches give this balls-to-the-wall slice a definite send-up of the early days of hardcore. As mentioned before, Date’s production values suit very well, and here the guitars are the main attraction. While all is well, “Battleship Graveyard” follows, and here is where the band starts to diverge into their Doppelganger territory, relying on a bit too much change-up, abruptness, and confusion. While the keywords that follow the group include “progressive” and “rock,” at times Erak’s vocals sound great, but they hardly match the music. After the first two offerings, “Battleship Graveyard” easily could have split into two separate tracks. Chocked riffs litter the song, but the numbers don’t correlate. Again, it’d be better off if the track were dissected into two separate entities.
This stigma of painstakingly deciding to split the songs in half continues for most of the rest of the album. While “A Classic Case Of Transference”, “Single” and “People And Their Lives” offer great melodic guitar rants of excellence, other tracks such as “Dirty Pillow Talk” (featuring Protest The Hero vocalist Rody Walker) and “Walk Of Fame” definitely suffer from a great start to an uneasy finish. Erak’s guitar shines throughout, but as mentioned before, he relies a bit on his Doppelganger days, although with a new twist. All is not lost, however, as the band throws yet another musical curveball towards the end with the album’s most straightforward tune, the downtrodden and bluesy “Webs.” Erak’s vocals are done very well, and the stark contrast offered here compliments the band’s progressive tendencies.
Much like the album album title says, In The Unlikely Event may garner a few new fans unfamiliar with the band’s work, but the hardcore fanatics will surely enjoy this record. Erak and the gang sound at their best both musically and production-wise. However, their tinkering with their songwriting is still trying to find a home. Brilliance shines on this record without a doubt, but a lot of murkiness bogs down the musical diamonds, so to speak, and from time to time stunts the growth of what can potentially be a truly great band.
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