Dead to Fall "Villainy & Virtue" CD
[Victory]
Not bad. I absolutely hated their last record because I thought the songwriting was weak and generic and I abhorred the recording, but this time around they've written a better set of songs and secured a far superior sound, so they're alright. Is it great? Nah. It's still generic enough to get to me, because there's just too much tremolo picking and rehashed melodic Swedish death metal dual guitar harmonies, but there are some curious melodic chord progressions and other sundry elements that point to a more promising future now. It basically is melodic Swedish death metalcore: Gruff vocal growls, lots of At the Gates/old In Flames-ish riffing, chunky breakdowns on occasion, etc. So I guess the main thing still holding them back in my opinion is songwriting. I don't find their breakdowns to be all that powerful, I think the melodic Swedish influences here are too typical, and therefore it can get a little stale. But "Bastard Set of Dreams" has some creative uses of clean guitars layered against distant screams, "Blood of the Moon" gets a little thicker with a thunderous midpaced trudge, "Cross Section" cruises along at a doomy pace and lets the bass drive more of the rhythm's focus, and "Epilogue" takes that a little farther with a more powerful buildup and some cool lead breaks. So, there are some promising moments for sure... And, if nothing else, the recording sounds much better here. The drums are really dense and sound fine to me (good clarity), the bass is there thickening things up without being central, the guitars are thick and textured with a good edge that keeps them from being stale, and the vocals sound fine to me - well placed in the mix and pretty well defined. I think the guitar tone could use minimal tweaking at times (mainly when one guitar drops out to let another fly solo), and letting the bass become more important could be cool, but fuck it. Sounds good. The layout looks fucking great here, with an Asian sort of theme with serpents and birds, and lots of intricate line designs with subtle metallic inks. The front cover folds out to a five-panel spread of artwork, with lots of alternating red and blue color schemes backing the lyrics. Incredibly awesome. The lyrics basically deal with fighting to survive and refusing to give in and such: "Live life while you can, or life will pass you by, If you've already given in, then you've already died..." Really, the layout is truly impressive, though. I can't quite get into the music enough to warrant giving them a 7/10 because it's still just too lacking in creativity/force, but a handful of the best songs here could've made an excellent EP, and the artwork is fucking stunning. Maybe next time... (6/10)
Running time - 31:18, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Blood of the Moon, Cross Section, Epilogue]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com

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