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For The Fallen Dreams

Wasted Youth

Written by: PP on 15/08/2012 05:58:33

So much potential wasted. For The Fallen Dreams used to be the go-to band when it came to lingering melodies embedded within crushing, yet ambient and melodic brand of hardcore, but "Wasted Youth" fails miserably to improve from last year's "Back Burner", which was already a disappointment for all but the band's most dedicated fanbase, most of all because it pushed the band more and more into clean singing and further away from what they used to represent. Now the go-to band is The Ghost Inside, and "Wasted Youth" pretty much ensures that For The Fallen Dreams isn't going to have a chance in a genre that is becoming increasingly crowded as it gains popularity.

Basically, if "Back Burner" brought in more clean vocals, on "Wasted Youth" these dominate the soundscape almost completely, and not in a good way. Producer Tom Denney from A Day To Remember has clearly had a different vision for the band on both of these albums, and here it begins to show in their songwriting, where the choruses are like straight out of emo/post-hardcore, with constant references to A Day To Remember songs. As a result, the confessions stick out like a sore thumb, while the guitars barely make it out of the muddy mix, and the harsh vocals are borderline terrible compared to what we heard on, for example "Changes" or "Relentless". But aside from its other shortfalls, it is really the clean vocals that bring this album down significantly. They sound uninspired and bland, even forced at times, lacking the raw emotion and power that they should be delivered with to stand out (again: see The Ghost Inside for an example).

That said, a couple of songs like "Until It Runs Out", "Sober" and "Living A Lie" are fairly catchy, but that's because they sound like A Day To Remember could've written them. They don't really fit the For The Fallen Dreams sound, and as a result the band comes across confused and incoherent on "Wasted Youth", by far their weakest album yet and where the loss of their primary songwriter is beginning to truly show.

Download: Until It Runs Out, Sober, Living A Lie
For the fans of: Confession, A Day To Remember, The Ghost Inside
Listen: Facebook

Release date 17.07.2012
Artery Records