For The Fallen Dreams – Wasted Youth

For The Fallen Dreams have released their 4th album called “Wasted Youth”. Dylan Richter, the bands vocalist said before the album came out that it would be like “Back Burner, but more mature”. Do I agree with that statement? No, I really don’t. I was a bit disappointed by “Back Burner”, but “Wasted Youth” just plain sucks. It’s a waste of time to listen to it. Why is that? Read on.

In my review of “Back Burner” I was quite positive of the change the band was making. I have to say that I still stand by that. But and this is a big one, For the Fallen Dreams can’t pull it off. They have clearly showed that now. I can’t tell you how boring these songs are. Breakdown after breakdown. Cleans sounds really forced. It’s just bad all around. There is nothing that stands out on this album. It’s just generic metalcore. Most of the songs are based on the same formula.

To tell you the truth, it’s bad, really bad. Did I mention that the lyrics are dull? After Andrew Tkaczyk left the band, it has just been downhill for this band. Andrew was the main songwriter and it shows. They are lost without him. They are a lost cause trying to sound like a bad A Day To Remember copy. This sound just doesn’t fit them.  It’s rather sad how this band has turned out. There is nothing that could save this band anymore. Where did the magic go guys?

Rating: 1/5

For The Fallen Dreams – Back Burner

So For The Fallen Dreams finally dropped their third and newest album. I’ve been looking forward to this for a longtime. So what do I think about it?

My first reaction was to check that I had put in the right cd. Back Burner sounds very different from what FTFD previously have done. For The Fallen Dreams are known for their brutal songs. It is often an assault on your ears, of the good kind. This is one of the main reasons why I love FTFD. But on this new album there is a major difference from before.  Andrew Tkaczyk, the bands drummer and co founder left the band in 2011. Not only is their only one orginal member left in the band, but Andrew was the main songwriter and it shows. Back Burner isn’t awful, if I said that I would be lying.

But for example the singing. Before Dylan Richter had most of the spot light. When it comes to Back Burner, that has changed. On most verses there is clean singing, nothing wrong with that in general. However in For The Fallen Dreams case, it is not good. It feels forced. Tom Denney, the producer could have done a better job with the clean vocals. Said to say, but that was a pretty big fail on FTFD part. Although there is good news to. Many people love Dylan’s low growls and he has become even better than on their second album “Relentless”. The new style with much more cleans than before Dylan’s brutal voice was/is a good idea, sadly it was poorly executed. Shifting between clean and harsh vocals is a nice idea. It gives the music so much more depth and can really make for great complex songs. This time it didn’t work out though, at least in my mind they could have done a far better job.

When it comes the melodic part of FTFD songs this album really shows their talent. As people have come to expect, Back Burner does not disappoint in this aspect. And the emotion behind these lyrics clearly shows. If I look away from the bad clean vocals there isn’t really much to complain about. Maybe a bit too much breakdowns for my taste. But this is still a “metalcore” band we are talking about and as everyone should know by now, they sure love their breakdowns.

I can accept that bands evolve. That goes for FTFD too. But they should have done a better job on “Back Burner”, simple as that. Yes, Back Burner is NOT what it should have been. It is pretty generic, even boring at times. I never thought I would say that about FTFD. It doesn’t stand out because everything that is on Back Burner has already been done by some other band. That is ok, because it is very hard to create something that is brand new that no one has done before you. But the sad thing is that although other bands have done all of this before (clean/harsh, melodic etc) FTFD have the talent to do something special but doesn’t seem to make a valid effort. They have talent, but can’t seem to find that sweet spot. Good idea with the clean vocals, but it could have been executed way better. Is “Back Burner” a bad cd? No, definitely not, but I expected more. Their ideas for the album were great on paper, but not on the cd. I hope that the next cd, if there will be one, takes these ideas and evolve them into something great. This cd will get a few spins, no doubt about that. But say 2 months from now, I will go to “Changes” or “Relentless” instead of this cd. This isn’t bad, it’s average, which their two other albums aren’t. They standout from all the other stuff in the metalcore scene.

Rating: 2.5/5