The Father Panic Riot Orchestra
Death Of The Last New Beginning
5.4
Oh dear, what a mess. Immediately after listening to this three song demo, the band Cipher and their recent Children of God’s Fire album sprung to mind; a mish mash of styles, a nu-metal/hardcore vocalist with an odd cadence and an overall lack of song writing focus.
There is such a thin line between ambition and distraction, but Connecticut’s TFPRO waver from line to line with startling regularity, sometimes trying to be a mechanical Meshuggah-ish beast, other times strutting their stuff as a machismo mosh core or metalcore act. Then out of nowhere, throw in some epic orchestral segues and clean vocal interludes. Oh and that’s just the first track “I Drown in a Wishing Well”.
“Life and the Art of Losing It” starts with awkward clean vocals before careening into a neo thrash gallop, then death metal saunter, then Killswitch type metalcore, again showing a vast shift in styles, that don’t go particularly smoothly. TFPRO just come across as a band trying way too hard to be progressive, but instead it comes across as the musical equivalent of throwing paint on a wall. Some may call it art but to you and me it’s…..well, paint on a wall. Third track “Cinder Block Dodgeball” seems to be the most focused track with a streamlined focus on rumbling American thrash core (Lamb of God, God Forbid, etc), so TFPRO do have the ability to baton down the hatches and focus on short sharp stabs of acceptable metal.
One thing that confuses me though is that TFPRO have 8 songs available at their website, but only put three on this demo. I don’t know much about the recording business, but why limit yourselves unless the budget is that tight? Any way, what they did record production-wise sounds OK, but they are still hampered by their ADD styled music that refuses to stand pat or settle into one single genre, and with their geographical location currently belting out good bands at a terrifying rate, TFPRO really need to add something to their sound to stand out.
