Injecting Hardcore back into modern Metalcore, For the Fallen Dreams are poised to make a triumphant return with their perfectly-titled sixth release, Six, which arrives this Friday, February 16, 2018, thanks to Rise Records. Want to hear a secret? It’s a damned delicious collection that you do not want to sleep on!
Line-up changes? Oh, For the Fallen Dreams have seen far beyond their fair share! Hailing from Lansing, Michigan, the band formed in 2003. They would go on to release a series of EPs before ultimately offering up their full-length debut album, Changes, in 2008. Four albums would follow – ranging from 2009’s Relentless to 2014’s Heavy Hearts, allowing these road dogs to tour, tour, tour. In fact, their die-hard determination has led For the Fallen Dreams to share stages with the likes of Motionless In White, A Day To Remember, The Amity Affliction, The Plot In You, Fit For A King, For Today, Sylar, The Ghost Inside, Chelsea Grin, Norma Jean, Caliban, and many, many more.
With four years having elapsed since Heavy Hearts, For the Fallen Dreams – Vocalist Chad Ruhlig, Guitarist Jim Hocking, Bassist Brandon Stastny, and Drummer Navid Naghdi – are finally ready to make their presence known once again! With fifteen years behind their belts, the Michigan quartet are present and accounted for, psyched to return with their sixth full-length, the ten-song, aptly-titled Six.
Six explodes into first single/video “Stone,” where sing-along worthy, wholly infectious choruses weave through massive multi-layered sonics that are a proper approach to Metalcore; infusing heavy Hardcore elements into the slaughtering sound profile. In a world where “Metalcore” has come to mean so very little, For the Fallen Dreams have seemingly rescued the scene with just one track! Thank the heavens!
Beautiful synths worthy of the latest Bring Me The Horizon offering lead into the pummeling stomp of “The Undertow,” a track that shares some sonic echoes with The Word Alive’s “Trapped.” (Which, you know, cannot possibly be a bad thing!) Meanwhile, the catchy sing-along of “Unstoppable” is motivational Metal at its finest; deliciously clean choruses alongside bang-along verses that urge listeners to get up again and be indestructible.
The stomp of “Forever” crawls from the pits of hell to weave a self-proclaimed nightmare of slaughtering bass-lines, haunting synths and dirge-y, sludge-tastic breakdowns. The end result puts the fun back into funereal, creating one truly dark and absolutely killer offering. Similarly, the oft slaughtering “Burning Season” sees soaring choruses that speak of burning fires inside the soul igniting our return to that place called home, creating a melancholy poignancy, if you will. Atmospheric “Two Graves,” however, is a bit of a sonic converse: with stomping, deadly pulsating verses that blend into candid, gritty confessionals as choruses.
Throbbing bass-lines anchor “Ten Years,” a truly soaring anthem for time spent searching and the fight for another decade’s worth of experience. Next, explosive yet infectious “Hypnosis” blasts the boys into “Void.” “Some days you feeling like running away” is the refrain that fans will scream when the band performs this blistering rocker live, for sure. Finally, like a raging hurricane of molten Metal, “The Storm” explodes in ferocity only to wane toward a gentle piano outro that closes out the album with a calming breath.
Unlike many of 2018’s Metalcore roster – who heavily embrace Metal but have little inkling of anything Hardcore – For the Fallen Dreams embrace the Hardcore and inject some melodic Metal into that hodge-podge, creating a proper Metalcore offering that is deliciously exciting in its homage to the early 2000s heyday of the ‘Core. This, in fact, makes For the Fallen Dreams a kind of amalgamation that possesses the forthright motivation of Hardcore superstars like Stick To Your Guns, the soaring atmospherics of Sempiternal-era Bring Me The Horizon, the balls of early Eighteen Visions, and the modern day panache of labelmates like The Word Alive. Whatever that all means, it equals one truly killer, blisteringly heavy sound that you should not miss! For these reasons, CrypticRock give For the Fallen Dreams’ Six 4.5 of 5 stars.
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