Surprised that nobody has made a thread for this yet... oh well, here I go! 8D
I'd love to read what you guys think of the album. Here's my track-by-track:
Prelude: Nothing to see/hear here really, a pointless (but at least appropriately short) intro track.
We Are The Future: The first "real" song, yay! Already spinned this a couple of times before the album came out, it's a pretty standard song from Crossfaith, works nicely as an opener.
Hounds Of The Apocalypse: More of the same, kinda. The "bouncier" chorus is pretty cool, and the outro part as well - though upon multiple listens it begins to get repetitive.
Eclipse: Aww yeahhh! Simple but great "party"-type of track, would be awesome to experience it live. The quiet melodic buildup with the clean vocals is something Crossfaith hasn't done before, and it's soundin' pretty nice actually. Overall a fun and light type of song while still having some "oomph".
The Evolution: Okay, getting a bit different here with the nu-metallish vibes and "hey" chants. If not for Kenta's typical vocals this would pass for a random industrial-electro-rock stomper too. The breakdown sound like Transformers having steamy sex in slow motion - which is a good thing.
Scarlett: Again, if not for the vocals this could easily be some teary-eyed emo-rock piece (or even something D'espairsRay would do in their later years, lol). Actually not bad, especially those little melodic bits and pieces, and the female vox are okay too.
Gala Hala (Burn Down The Floor): Another nu-metal tinged number (it even has scratches xD) with a nice fast chorus that pumps you up, and some ultra-simplistic riffs that are good for nodding your head to, I guess. It's interesting to hear Crossfaith opening up musically like this.
Countdown To Hell: Not much electronic frilly bits, just br00tality. Nothing more to say really. It's not bad but gets repetitive fast.
Deathwish: Dunno what it is about this song, but it just sounds plain weak and uninspired. The wubba-wubba breakdown is the only somewhat okay thing here.
Counting Stars: The intro is pretty cool (it's an actual cello btw), and overall the song is a nice melodic one, kind of in the vein of Scarlett, just not that memorable.
Burning White: Nothing too special but I guess it gets the job done. Oh wait, it has a guitar solo too! They don't usually have those. xD
Only The Wise Can Control Our Eyes: The closing track, again, not much worth mentioning. Oh, there's clean vocals again, that's pretty much it.
Wellllll I'm kinda conflicted about the album. It started off in a pretty kickass way but gradually became more and more tedious and tiring to listen to in the second half. I'm not saying those songs are bad (for the most part at least), they just kinda blend together into one samey mass without much to remember. As background music to some random thing you're doing they're pretty good tho. Also, I just have to mention how much I absolutely despise the mixing/production on this release... it's all really loud vocals, loud (but kinda weirdly muffled-sounding) electronics and drums. Most of the time the guitars are barely there, as a kinda paper-thin backdrop, and the bass only exists when everything else is cleaned-out pretty much. The random bits where they decided it would be a good idea to play with "dynamics" sound cool occasionally but most of the time it's just plain annoying ("okay, let's make this part sound real quiet, and then the chorus will be extra-loud! yeahhh!"). All these things really really distract from the experience. Overall it's an interesting album with some cool new things that runs out of steam sadly towards the end.
(would be 3/5 if not for the terrible sound) | some cool tracks and some lackluster ones, kind of a mixed bag
