Passionate hardcore is one genre where the music is either done beautifully, or leads you into the land of mediocrity. Bands such as Botch, Nora, and Coalesce have laid a foundation — setting a standard for heavy music that bands such as Norma Jean have picked up on.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based The Fire The Flood looks to do the same. However, their journey will be a long one. A first listen to their new release Truthseekers (No Sleep Records), immediately catches your attention, with solid ear-pounding guitars all around. Once the vocals kick in however, what seemed like a solid effort falls into something rather bland and stagnant.
The first track “..And It Grows Like Weeds” opens with a half-time drum/vocal combo and goes into a fierce guitar attack. As stated before however, the vocals fall short, as they sound too repetitive. I mean, the music alone can only do so much as you need strength in any vocal delivery to make the song complete. While only 42 seconds long, I will say that “The Wolf Inside Me” gets to the point with maniacal precision. While I am still not a fan of the vocals at all, they work well with this track. The breakdowns on “Therapy” definitely have enough punch to keep you interested.
What definitely surprised me is the final track, “The Blizzard.” This gives me some glimpses of hope. They go into the passionate hardcore realm for about 2 minutes, before going into a hybrid of banjo/experimental noise. Once you think the song is over, it immediately jumps into some hardcore punk ala Minor Threat (or any of the older, more traditional hardcore bands — take your pick).
Bottom Line: If I was giving this album any kind of star rating, I would rate this a 2.5 out of 5. The music is arranged well, but the vocals fall well below expectations. I understand it's going to be hard to bring variety to this type of music. But there has to be something that pushes those songs from good to great. While still average, it’s not so bad that you can’t add it to your CD collection.
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