Don't Look Down

Don't Look Down: The Fear In LoveThe Fear In Love (2004)
Nitro Records

Reviewer Rating: 2

User Rating:

Contributed by: InaGreendaseBrian
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on November 30th 2004There's a good year between Don't Look Down's Five EP and their latest effort, The Fear In Love, so wouldn't you would think with that time the band could gather a couple original ideas and maybe cool down on the shameless Thrice aping their aforementioned release offered? No? Well, yeah, me neith.

There's a good year between Don't Look Down's Five EP and their latest effort, The Fear In Love, so wouldn't you would think with that time the band could gather a couple original ideas and maybe cool down on the shameless Thrice aping their aforementioned release offered? No? Well, yeah, me neither.

Perhaps riding some new middle ground between a more proficient, less whiny/technical Matchbook Romance and the post-hardcore stylings of latter-era Thrice, the band is starting to shed some of their old skin, but there's some really clear copycatting to be found on the disc. The lead track, "Right Where It Hurts," is probably the best evidence of such, as it's a veritable resusciation attempt of The Artist In The Ambulance, replete with references to a shadow and the "these riffs are technical, I swear!" mentality. While the rest of the album is slightly more original and even inanely catchy at points (I cursed myself for spending a day with "Last Breath"), lead vocalist Ryan Ogren still sounds like an awful lot like a younger, more raspy Dustin Kensrue. The band is doing some things right, but only in the sense of what they avoid, as The Fear In Love is devoid of unnecessary breakdowns and screaming. Shocking, I know.

I really wanted to avoid talking about lyrical content out of pure disgust, but it's a pressing point that I'll obviously need to discuss. Though the previously mentioned Thriceaholic tendencies bleed into the songwriting as well (allusions to hearts, the dark, vague murder, the burning of metaphysical objects), the talent apparently forgot to tag along again. Story of the Year would be proud of a couplet like "I can't breathe / you're choking me / your words are hands around my throat / they penetrate my skin - and kill me." This continues for each of the twelve tracks, but I'll save us both the effort from further examples.

When the positive points of a band is what they're not doing, you should probably be wary. Don't Look Down are slowly starting to crawl out of the hole they'd quickly dug themselves to begin with, but it's apparently a long, rough journey ahead up.

MP3
To All Our Saviors
STREAM
Trust is a Word
Last Breath
The Fear In Love
VIDEO
To All Our Saviors Quicktime download / Windows Media stream

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

soulbleed (December 4, 2004)

This is not as bad as described.

pastepunk (December 2, 2004)

New Found Glory doesn't even know what to do with themselves anymore either. Being influenced by Story of the Year is not something you really want to tell ANYONE, unless your purposely trying to create a fanbase of 15 year old girls.

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Don't forget that there are those who intentionally try to sound like other bands, AND there are cases where influences are subconsciously built into one's songwriting...

Anonymous (December 2, 2004)

Remember when Matchbook Romance was a skatepunk band called "the Getaway?" Matchbook Romance altered their sound to try and interest kids who liked their rhythms slower, their haircuts sideways, and don't forget the occasional random scream.

Barkley

pastepunk (December 2, 2004)

Jordan-

You don't find it at all odd that every time these guys release something it changes to whats currently "in"? Come on, if you like em, fine, but seriously, they have no identity.

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I don't think there's really much of a distinction to what they're playing now to what they started off as - and I've been into them before they had an album out, so I'm not missing anything. They started out with fast, melodic punk a la New Found Glory, but the songs were pretty simple, if not super catchy. The EP is a wash since it's definitely a transitional piece as they became better songwriters - though the acoustic tunes weren't anything worth writing home about. While there's certainly an influence of Thrice or Story of the Year on the new disc, I really don't see it being so pronounced to charge them with trend chasing. The new disc has a bunch of flaws, but I don't get the impression at all that they're trying to ride off the coattails of other bands... unlike, say The Academy Is...

Anonymous (December 2, 2004)

this band is a bunch of asshole trash.

sickboi (December 2, 2004)

Jordan-

You don't find it at all odd that every time these guys release something it changes to whats currently "in"? Come on, if you like em, fine, but seriously, they have no identity.

Anonymous (December 2, 2004)

"What would a pre hardcore band be?"

Skate punk. (Oddly enough my band joked about making a shirt that said "Melodic pre-hardcore" under our name, but we thought kids aren't smart enough to pick up that it's a joke.)

swingline (December 1, 2004)

score is for dont look down

i hope they read this too. you're all pussies. if you want to fight me, ill give you my address and we can throw down

^HAHAHAHAHA HARDXCORE
scores for the tough guy