Review of Dead To Fall - Everything I Touch Falls to Pieces

Dead to Fall sure comes highly acclaimed from Victory Records. Hailed as the best album since At The Gates' "Slaughter of the Soul", and having vocals that are (and I quote) "so powerful that nothing like it has ever been approached by a human", they sure do have a lot to live up to. Naturally they don't, but they do have something for everyone, both hardcore fans and metal fans alike. "Everything I Touch Falls to Pieces" is the very definition of the word "metalcore". It has the breakdowns of hardcore, fused with the riffage and technicality of metal. Solidifying the whole experience is some incredible double bass action. Some of the riffs are very At The Gates or Entombed sounding, it just has that evil melodic feel that only At The Gates could've wrought upon our ungrateful souls. There is some very good metal to be had here, and while somewhat simplistic due to the hardcore elements, it ends up being much more than decent. The best tracks are those that meld hardcore and metal in great quantities, such as "Graven Image", "Cost of a Good Impression", and "The Balance Theory". There are a few problems here that keep this from being a masterpiece of an album. First of all, the production isn't up to par, as is to be expected of a band's first release. The drums sound nice, which is surprising since most bad production jobs are most evident in the drum production. The guitars sound just a little bit flat, but the main gripe I have is with the vocals. Vocalist Jon Hunt is pretty good, but his vocal production was crap. The way it was produced just makes him sound exhausted or like he's screaming through a pillow while being suffocated. Luckily none of my gripes are musical in any way, mainly production-wise. Musically, they do a very nice job of welding two different metals together, a feat of metallurgy which is not easily pulled off. I foresee Chicago's Dead To Fall going relatively far in the metal world as long as they stick to what makes them good. Now if only they could solve the problem of hardcore dancing, we'd all be in metal heaven. Wrathchild's Choice Cuts: Graven Image - I believe this was the track they released as a "teaser" for the album, good stuff The Balance Theory - Great riffs, as "epic" as metalcore can get

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Dead To Fall

Everything I Touch Falls to Pieces

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