Bands like blessthefall tend to get a bad rep on websites such at this. True, they’re not the heaviest even as far as metalcore is concerned, but it’s nice to keep an open mind when it comes to the countless metal subgenres available. It’s a nice contrast and helps the other genres sound even fresher when you return to them. And it doesn’t get much more metalcore than blessthefall, so it might not be a bad idea to give a critical listen to their newest album, To Those Left Behind.
To Those Left Behind is a pretty good shift in direction for blessthefall. It’s still definitely and unashamedly metalcore, but it’s gotten just a little darker compared to the band’s earlier work. It’s similar to how most metalcore is sounding nowadays, from other bands like The Devil Wears Prada. The second song of the album, “Walk On Water”, is a good example of this little shift. The riffs are a little bit busier, it’s tuned a little lower, and it’s also full to the brim with texture and atmosphere. As a matter of fact, the whole album is a complete wall of sound and there’s little to no negative space whatsoever, which is also pretty indicative of other metalcore bands of today. Actually, the whole album is really just indicative of regular metalcore currently coming out today.
"Walk On Water"
blessthefall has never been a band to deviate much from metalcore tropes and tendencies, and To Those Left Behind is no different. It’s not exactly cookie-cut from their older albums, but it is pretty cookie-cut from metalcore in general. Songs have clear structures of verses, choruses and breakdowns, clean vocals make up about 50% of the vocal time, and songs are more focused on atmosphere than speed. And the atmosphere is pretty thick on these tracks. Everything is just completely bombastic from the drums to the extra-layered guitars to the point where it almost gets tiring. But again, this isn't anything different from what other bands are currently performing.
And it’s not necessarily a bad thing that this album has all of these tropes because it’s still done pretty well. “Dead Air” is probably my favorite song on the album, and it’s pretty much due to all of the metalcore characteristics. It begins with a driving punkish beat, breaks down to a light and ethereal verse, and builds up to a heavy chorus with a pretty catch melody. But of course, most of the songs on To Those Left Behind could be described as such, and therein lies the overall weakness of this album; it’s just too monotonous. The songs themselves are pretty dynamic in feels, but the album as a whole doesn’t develop much at all. You could pretty much jump around through random parts of random songs and feel like you were still in the same song. Apart from a couple of exceptions, none of these songs stick in your head much and they end up being a little forgettable. Is it because it’s unabashedly metalcore? No. Monotony can happen to any album of any genre, and it is unfortunately what we ultimately have in this one as well.
To Those Left Behind might not be the best blessthefall album, but it is still a good shift in a new direction for the band. Maybe this is just a precursor to an amazing album from the band coming soon, but for now, this one falls just a little short. It’s certainly not bad, but this might not be the album to get new fans. However, if you are a blessthefall fan, then you’ll probably be really excited for a couple of new sounds from the band. If anything, it just shows that they’re growing, which is the most exciting part of all.
"Up In Flames"
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