Prevent Falls

A Newer More Shattered You
2002
Equal Vision




Review by: citra
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Published on January 31st 2003

Another one of the many talented bands recently surfacing from the inner streets of New Jersey, Prevent Falls presents themselves in a very ignorable fashion - but after hearing their debut album, it's pretty hard to push them away. It's filled with everything that made Thursday's album great, the catchiness of Brand New, and the monotone-but-yet-full-of-emotion vocals of Armor For Sleep, all compiled together along side its already impressive musical presence.

From the opening track "K Consumption" (I was a little skeptical at first due to the fact that it shares such an obscure title with labelmates Time in Malta), I was hooked. It was one of the most energetic and exciting songs I had heard in awhile, and I really got into it. As soon as it ended, I was pretty hyped, hoping the record would stay the same intensity throughout. The next track "As the Crowd Fades" didn't let me down at all, and neither did the following track, however I did feel it lacked the specialness I found in the first two tracks, but I decided not to be judgmental and just give the rest of the album a good listen.

The opening riff of "No More Brazil" was well crafted, but the vocals that followed were way too much like Armor for Sleep for comfort, but I figured that since both bands are from the exact same scene and region, it's to be expected. Plus, the lyrical content and vocal styling was pretty catchy, and it made for a very good song. The next track "Outward" is probably one of the best songs on the album .. it's amazingly harmonic and I just kept listening to it over and over. As far as emocore/screamo goes, I'd consider the song brilliant and I recommend it highly.

Needless to say, this was turning out to be a pretty good record, and I was glad that I invested the $8 at their show to buy it. This band was amazing live, and even though no one really knew them, they got the crowd going pretty well, and that makes me impressed with them a lot more.

So, after being in awe of the sheer brilliance of the last song mentioned, I was pretty much ready to give this band at least a 4 star rating, but some doubts were cast into my mind as I heard the next song - it completely lacked originality and sounded a lot like everything else on the record, and I know that it's a common thing thesedays, but that's still pretty annoying. "My Daily Surprises" is a track to stay away from, for sure, unless you're listening to the album as a whole while driving along some interstate all zoned out, heh.

The rest of the album kept my attention pretty nicely, but with each track I was getting less and less impressed with the band. I realized that it was a very good singles album, the kind where you just pick one or two songs at a time to play and then move onto the next record. As a whole, it's rather boring and repetitive, but it's still one of the better screamo albums of 2002.