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 | FreyaAs The Last Light Drains2003 Victory 
 Review by: Aubin See others by this writer ![[staff]](/images/icons/staffsticker.gif){kind=icon}
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Published on May 23rd 2003 I've been writing reviews for awhile now, and as much as it takes a herculean effort to wring a five star review out of me, it takes an equally brutally bad record to recieve a real panning from me. The last Earth Crisis record, Slither recieved the aforementioned panning, and I stand by it. It really was a terrible record. So, a few years later, Freya (previously known as Nemesis, and known before that as three-fifth's of Earth Crisis) releases s The Last Light Drains. It's been almost eight years since "Destroy the Machines", a genre defining metalcore masterpiece, and the real question is, where are we now? Billed as "retain[ing] the heaviness of Earth Crisis while incorporating a new level of melodicism and a profoundly different thematic emphasis" The band certainly delivers on part of that promise. Thematically - that is, lyrically - the band is far more concerned with personal issues than the apocalyptic hardline-esque vision of straight edge. (In fact, two of the members are old fashioned meat eating, hard drinkin' guys) Moments of heaviness do exist on the record, but in many ways, they lacks follow through, almost as if the band is reluctant to offend the delicate sensibilities of it's listeners. Whether this is a bid for radio play is left up to the reader. The record is truly and completely confused. The band doesn't seem to know if wants to go for a post-hardcore sound like it's contemporaries, or revert to a purely brutal hardcore act. "Negative Infinity" sounds like Grade, while "Down in Flames" is pure heaviness; "Glasseating Smile" reminds me of Atreyu. It goes on like that for thirteen tracks. Trapped within the record is a strong hardcore EP, and it seems to be struggling with a mediocre post-hardcore band that's just trying to whine it's way to the surface. Joining the mismatched crew, is a smidgen of relentlessly annoying nu-metal, complete with well, rapped vocals, and whiny interludes.
This is clearly a talented group of musicians, and for a portion of the record, they excel at
providing a powerful, heavy and unique record. Detracting from the strong tracks though, is this incomprehensible
need write bland versions of their contemporaries. The irony is of course, that in their previous works, they wrote the songs
they wanted, and the fans were drawn to them; now, it appears that the band is trying to pander to them instead.
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Personally, I think this is a brilliant album. Great breakdowns mixed with great melodic moments. Yes, it does sound a lot like Atreyu at times (the melodic vocals in both bands sound almost indentical), but this band is much more dynamic than, yet still just as relenting as, Earth Crisis! Pick this one up! Earth Crisis may have been an alright band but good golly their annoying preaching got annoying. They were worse than any Christian or satanic band. yeah, Fiya is like 10 times better then this band! um, i don't think earth crisis were violent. i think they kinda did advocate destruction of fur factories and shit like that, but outside of that i'm not sure The Promise is pretty damned good, Indecision knows how to put out some good stuff. forget this album. do yourself a favor and check out the promise another band featuring ex earth crisis members. can someone clue me in on the whole earth crisis being violent thing? i've heard that somewhere where some of the band members are real militant and promote violence at shows. or am i just totally wrong on that? soulbleed, I agree that it would be nice to hear this record untained by Earth Crisis, and give that perspective, and I definitely invite someone to do that, but I know that myself, and many other Earth Crisis fans are of course wondering how this record will feel to them. I haven't heard this yet, but if it sounds like the stuff they recorded as Nemesis it must be pretty bad. the problem really lies in this: are we excepting this band for who they are? or for what they gave to the genre? it's obvious that most of the people who will listen to this album are listening to it solely because of the fact that it's more than 1/2 of earth crisis - and because now that the old monicker has been shed, they are expecting a return to a more familiar sound (that was seemingly lost with their last studio album 'slither,' which was still a great album - just a great album by a different band than we were used to). and that will be a problem, really. |
