This album is super disappointing and sounds like it should be their first album, not the latest one. I guess they lost more than just their vocalist, seems with him went some of their sound.

After the slightly condescending response (from the band on FB) of being told I might just not "get" the album after not liking the first couple of songs, I promised myself to contain my disappointment of the one-dimensional vocals and horrible mix and see what the rest of the album had to offer.

It's generic metalcore. There's no two ways about it. There may be some interesting guitar work buried within at times, but that's the thing; it's been buried under screeching vocals.

I'm sure the band will net themselves some new fans in the core space, but to me this abum is one of the biggest disappointments of the decade, let alone of the last year, and this album is sure to cast aside a lot of fans the band worked hard to earn.

I'm sure this will just be dismissed under the guize of "forget about the haters and do your own thing," but it really is a shame to see such a great band go in such an awful way and I hope they take some of the more critical responses on board and use them to grow as a band rather than dismissing everyone negative as either haters, or just unable to "get" the album.

Written by Danroush on 15.03.2019 at 21:13

After the slightly condescending response (from the band on FB) of being told I might just not "get" the album after not liking the first couple of songs, I promised myself to contain my disappointment of the one-dimensional vocals and horrible mix and see what the rest of the album had to offer.

It's generic metalcore. There's no two ways about it. There may be some interesting guitar work buried within at times, but that's the thing; it's been buried under screeching vocals.

I'm sure the band will net themselves some new fans in the core space, but to me this abum is one of the biggest disappointments of the decade, let alone of the last year, and this album is sure to cast aside a lot of fans the band worked hard to earn.

I'm sure this will just be dismissed under the guize of "forget about the haters and do your own thing," but it really is a shame to see such a great band go in such an awful way and I hope they take some of the more critical responses on board and use them to grow as a band rather than dismissing everyone negative as either haters, or just unable to "get" the album.

Yeah, I signed up to review this without listening to the singles cos I'm such a big fan of Dreamless and TFP, it's crazy the drop-off from those albums to this one

If this wasn't a Fallujah album it'd probably be a solid 8-9. But once you've heard every Fallujah album and then you listen to this... It's inevitable to be disappointed. They lost a lot with Alex's departure, that's pretty obvious. I don't like new singer but it's not enterely his fault, I'm sure he has done the best he could. Also, the mix is TERRIBLE. Sometimes you can't even distinguish the instruments. But overall i think it's a good album, but I don't like the direction the band has taken.

I get it. You expected the pinnacle of technical death metal in 2019. But you got metalcore. I was disappointed at first. But for a metalcore album, this is very fine material. I honestly don't mind the vocals, and I think this is one of the best metalcore releases since quite some time. I'm really digging this.

Written by zeromus44 on 16.03.2019 at 15:56

If this wasn't a Fallujah album it'd probably be a solid 8-9. But once you've heard every Fallujah album and then you listen to this... It's inevitable to be disappointed. They lost a lot with Alex's departure, that's pretty obvious. I don't like new singer but it's not enterely his fault, I'm sure he has done the best he could. Also, the mix is TERRIBLE. Sometimes you can't even distinguish the instruments. But overall i think it's a good album, but I don't like the direction the band has taken.

A solid 8-9 is a solid 8-9 no matter what the band's name is. It's like saying that if this was a Heaven Shall Burn album then it would be an 8 but because it's a Fallujah album then it's a 5. Makes no sense. If you like it you like it, easy as that.
I like this album, been listening to it at work the whole weekend along with Fallujah's other releases and for me this feels like a logical continuation to Dreamless because they started going in this direction with that album imo. Listen to them back to back and you'll see. For me this album is a solid 8 and unlike other comments I don't see (or rather hear) any problems with the mix. If you don't like how it sounds you're not playing it loud enough.
And hey, Fallujah is not going down the same path as Machine Head, In Flames and especially All That Remains at least, releasing albums that are truly trash.
But I can agree that this album is not as good as The Harvest Wombs or The Flesh Prevails.

Some serious crybaby behavior going on about this album everywhere. As much as a fan I am of TFP, I consider myself lucky that I can stay objective about this record, because it's not quite as bad as everyone stating it to be. Yes it's quite far and lacking compared to their previous albums, but if you don't compare then it's just a solid albeit a little uninspired and not so dynamic album.

Get over your feelings bois/gals.

Written by Nejde on 18.03.2019 at 03:32

Written by zeromus44 on 16.03.2019 at 15:56

If this wasn't a Fallujah album it'd probably be a solid 8-9. But once you've heard every Fallujah album and then you listen to this... It's inevitable to be disappointed. They lost a lot with Alex's departure, that's pretty obvious. I don't like new singer but it's not enterely his fault, I'm sure he has done the best he could. Also, the mix is TERRIBLE. Sometimes you can't even distinguish the instruments. But overall i think it's a good album, but I don't like the direction the band has taken.

A solid 8-9 is a solid 8-9 no matter what the band's name is. It's like saying that if this was a Heaven Shall Burn album then it would be an 8 but because it's a Fallujah album then it's a 5. Makes no sense. If you like it you like it, easy as that.
I like this album, been listening to it at work the whole weekend along with Fallujah's other releases and for me this feels like a logical continuation to Dreamless because they started going in this direction with that album imo. Listen to them back to back and you'll see. For me this album is a solid 8 and unlike other comments I don't see (or rather hear) any problems with the mix. If you don't like how it sounds you're not playing it loud enough.
And hey, Fallujah is not going down the same path as Machine Head, In Flames and especially All That Remains at least, releasing albums that are truly trash.
But I can agree that this album is not as good as The Harvest Wombs or The Flesh Prevails.

At first you were making some fair points about how the person you quoted was rating their music, and how the band that wrote it shouldn't define the rating.

Then you followed it up by saying bad mixes can be fixed by turning up the volume...sorry but that's utter nonsense and you must know it to be!

The issue with the mix is that it's clearly been mixed by someone who tried to put his own style on the music (which is why it sounds like the other bands he's mixed), rather than focusing on getting the most out of the band he was working with, which to me is a bad and selfish way to mix an album.

Written by Danroush on 12.04.2019 at 01:39

At first you were making some fair points about how the person you quoted was rating their music, and how the band that wrote it shouldn't define the rating.

Then you followed it up by saying bad mixes can be fixed by turning up the volume...sorry but that's utter nonsense and you must know it to be!

The issue with the mix is that it's clearly been mixed by someone who tried to put his own style on the music (which is why it sounds like the other bands he's mixed), rather than focusing on getting the most out of the band he was working with, which to me is a bad and selfish way to mix an album.

I never said bad mixes can be fixed. But music can actually sound better if you play it louder. Almost all metal regardless of genre sounds bad on low volume because you most often only hear the drums then (and now I'm talking really low volume). For example, even St. Anger sounds better when you play it louder and there we're talking about one of the worst mixes ever.
Also, and this is a big also. How it sounds depends highly on your sound system and your speakers. Nothing sounds good on your 25 quid Apple speakers plugged in to your laptop... Without a subwoofer to begin with, everything sounds like shit imo.

Sorry to say it but it's the band that chooses the producer, not the other way around. When it comes to this album I don't know who mixed it but I guess Fallujah wanted him to produce their album because they like his sound. If they wanted it to sound another way they would've gotten someone else to mix the album. Easy as that.

Written by Nejde on 13.04.2019 at 04:44

I never said bad mixes can be fixed. But music can actually sound better if you play it louder. Almost all metal regardless of genre sounds bad on low volume because you most often only hear the drums then (and now I'm talking really low volume). For example, even St. Anger sounds better when you play it louder and there we're talking about one of the worst mixes ever.

I generally agree with you -- the mix on this album is SIGNIFICANTLY better than, for example, The Flesh Prevails (CD version). I really don't know why people complaining about it. It's actually something I can play loud without getting ear fatigue after a few minutes.

But then you mention that St. Anger can sound good, rendering all your arguments invalid

Written by Akatash on 18.04.2019 at 20:12

Written by Nejde on 13.04.2019 at 04:44

I never said bad mixes can be fixed. But music can actually sound better if you play it louder. Almost all metal regardless of genre sounds bad on low volume because you most often only hear the drums then (and now I'm talking really low volume). For example, even St. Anger sounds better when you play it louder and there we're talking about one of the worst mixes ever.

I generally agree with you -- the mix on this album is SIGNIFICANTLY better than, for example, The Flesh Prevails (CD version). I really don't know why people complaining about it. It's actually something I can play loud without getting ear fatigue after a few minutes.

But then you mention that St. Anger can sound good, rendering all your arguments invalid

I said better, not good

Written by Nejde on 13.04.2019 at 04:44

I never said bad mixes can be fixed. But music can actually sound better if you play it louder. Almost all metal regardless of genre sounds bad on low volume because you most often only hear the drums then (and now I'm talking really low volume). For example, even St. Anger sounds better when you play it louder and there we're talking about one of the worst mixes ever.
Also, and this is a big also. How it sounds depends highly on your sound system and your speakers. Nothing sounds good on your 25 quid Apple speakers plugged in to your laptop... Without a subwoofer to begin with, everything sounds like shit imo.

Sorry to say it but it's the band that chooses the producer, not the other way around. When it comes to this album I don't know who mixed it but I guess Fallujah wanted him to produce their album because they like his sound. If they wanted it to sound another way they would've gotten someone else to mix the album. Easy as that.

Sorry for the delayed response here!

Okay, you're making more sense now with regards to the mix. Something I find a little hard to explain at times but does seem to apply to bands mixed by this producer is that everyone seems to be playing over the top of each oher, rather than *with* each other. That does mean you can still the individual parts, but they don't seem to be in harmony at all here. To me, the new vocalist sounds like someone who has walked into the room after everything else was finished, and then just screamed over the top of it (in an incredibly one-dimensional way to boot)!

What you've said about who chooses who is unfortunately a little naive. There could be a wide number of influencing factors, such as the label, or just others misinforming them. That said, even if it was their free, fully informed choice, doesn't mean it wasn't a bad one! They can ignore all the fans who have said highlighted this if they wish to be stubborn, but it's certainly a shame from my point of view, both in seeing a great band go this way, and in seeing their callousness towards their fans up until now.

This album grew on me quite a bit after just a couple of listens. I think this still sounds like Fallujah, albeit trying something new to them. I definitely preferred the prior vocals (like everyone else), but other than I can't find much fault in the music.