The Long Forgotten
Divinity School Drop Out
5.2
Too late. That's all I can say to The Long Forgotten. Three years ago their awfully rendered melodic riffing, predictable breakdowns, and bleating vocals might have at least served as the promise for a future as a reliable second-tier melodi-core band. Unfortunately, by the time this band gets their shit together, the trends they're trying to key in on will have probably died.
So, Divinity School Dropout is the album, and to be honest it's not entirely devoid of good ideas. They've got this really impressive knack for throwing in melodic lead runs right as the verse riffs are culminating and adding a sort of lucidity to their songs that a lot of young bands lack. It's that sense of songwriting that holds songs like "The End Begins" and "City of Piety" together despite their generally sub-par riffing.
Aside from that, this band has so much work to do. Their production is absolutely atrocious and droned in treble. The guitars sound like they were played through 60-watt Crate bass amps and "death metal" distortion pedals. The bass player was absconded by ninjas on his way to the studio and was forced to record his parts on a tennis racket. As a result, the breakdowns lack a certain heft. And by "a certain," I mean "any fucking." The vocals are beyond parody. I was thoroughly convinced this was a joke album after hearing the the title track. Imagine if Davey Havoc from AFI was stripped of any sense of tone or restraint. I mean seriously, this must be the kind of rubbish people who hate metalcore hear when they listen to more commonly reviled bands like Shai Hulud or The Number 12 Looks Like You. The vocalists on this album (I think there's two) are about as self aware as a fat female comic on BET who insists that her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. Even if this album was touched by the hand of a Madsen, Sneap or Townsend, these off-time, off-key, off-everything vocals would still make Divinty School Dropout one of the worst listening experiences of my life.
Final word. The production is awful, the vocals are SCHMAWFUL, and the music is derivative and largely uninspired. If this band were to tweak everything to modern standards and ditch their vocalist, I could see them developing a moderate fan base of younger, more impressionable metal neophytes. However, judging from what I hear on Divinity School Dropout, any substantial musical contribution from The Long Forgotten seems pretty unlikely.
