Philadelphia's A Life Once Lost have come a long way since the release of their out-of-print debut album "A Great Artist", which is now being reissued through Ferret Records. Combining together the hypnotic repetitive riffing of Meshuggah, the remorseless vocal growls/screams of Coalesce, and the math-metal precision from The Dillinger Escape Plan, one would think A Life Once Lost were sitting on a winning formula with dollar signs in their eyes.
But in the midst of the raging vocals and the mathematically precise riffs that tend to sound too similar in every song - partly caused by the Black Sabbath style groovy pull strings - little substance is found, especially considering this is the second time this album is being released. The problem lies within the fact that these are songs that are unmistakably written to be played live, and on record they don't catch your attention as much as they would when your eyes follow the invigorating head bangs in a slave like manner, or when their guitarist-vocalist 'Snake' would uncontrollably trudge the stage to the endless rhythmic pulsations of songs like "Cavil" and "Surreal Atrocities".
When this is toppled by the fact that the reissue has no additional material compared to the original release, there is little to warrant to pay those extra dollars to the wallet of the record label if you own this album already, no matter how exemplary label Ferret is in reality. Fans of Coalesce and Meshuggah will be able to gauge the repeat-riff style arrangements more easily than others, but nevertheless, as far as metalcore goes, "A Great Artist" is nothing more than just slightly above average.
[6]
Download: Surreal Atrocities, The Change Came Suddenly
For the fans of: Meshuggah, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Coalesce, Deadguy
Listen: Myspace
Release date 06.11.2006
Ferret
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