Posted on: December 16, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

It is a little hard to get into the type of music that For Those Lost start off “This is Our Fight” with. The first track is “I Smile At Your Terror”, and it blends a very straight forward type of hardcore music with a set of guitar that would work better with either a sludge metal or a seventies metal band. The type of music that ultimately issues forth is “hard” and “heavy” but it does not seem to have the soul necessary to really capture listeners’ interest. During tracks like “Grey Day”, the guitarist shows that he is very talented in creating intense and intricate riffs, but these are not contextualized well into the rest of the music on the tract.

The rest of the band seems to be on the same page, but when the guitarist only steps up when the rest of the band steps back, it seems a little odd. When the band gets to “Walk To The Sun”, the transitions to the different parts of the track move beyond just being mediocre to achieving a whole new brand of unease. These are not smooth but seem to show For Those Lost as a band that stalls out and tries to start up with a different flick of the switch, only to kick in violently. “Case Against You” shows the band as getting together a little better, with the guitars, drums, and bass uniting to make something better. However, there is something else that hamstrings the band during that track.

This is a weakness that manifests itself during this track and makes the bass move from just providing deep beats to something that is very muddy and destructive to the fairly clear sound that the band has cultivated during this track. Still, the vocal breakdown during this track brings the song back to a null result; For Those Lost just cannot get a break on “This is Our Fight”. The band’s luck seems to kick in during “Retribution”, which uses spastic drumming and truly driven guitars to make the song into something that could conceivably be played on metal radio or Headbanger’s Ball. For Those Lost have a few things to do before they can put up a serious attack against the popular hardcore and metal bands of the day, but they do have the ability to do it if they put their mind to it. Give their next album a shot, but let this one go.

Top Tracks: Grey Day, Retribution

Rating: 4.2/10

For Those Lost – This is Our Fight / 2006 Engineer / 9 Tracks / http://www.forthoselosthxc.moonfruit.com / http://www.engineerrecords.com / Reviewed 19 May 2006

[JMcQ]

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