“If we all stand up break through with our bare hands.“
2023 is the year that For The Fallen Dreams will mark the 15th anniversary since their debut full-length, Changes. What followed were metalcore staples of the time with Relentless and Wasted Youth, that rode the wave of Warped Tour style bands trading between riff heavy verses and huge choruses. With that being a time that is rightfully and buried, it left groups such as For The Fallen Dreams in a position of forced reinvention. With their last full-length in 2018, Six, just managing to cling onto their sound, it raised the question of could For The Fallen Dreams survive its follow up.
With opener “Reanimate“, it quickly becomes evident that For The Fallen Dreams are now a busted flush. Imitating Parkway Drive‘s Ire with the low growls and clean choruses crowbarred in, it subjects listeners to the first barrage of abject lyricism, “Save my soul, bring me back to life, I want to breathe again”. Even in the good faith of their previous work, its opening moments clearly set the scene for what is going to be a paint-by-numbers metalcore record.
Unfortunately For The Fallen Dreams offers up further cringe-inducing moments with its rapped versed that rear their head on “What If”, that enter in full force on “Searching…“, with the latter displaying further hollow lyricism in the form of “When we leave this world we have to do it on our own“, that only serve to make this an even more painful listen. The choice to opt for rapped vocals here only makes it worse too, which, in comparison to the serviceable harsh vocals, come across as amateur-ish and underdeveloped.
This, paired with the compression and high pitch-correction on the cleans makes for an uncomfortable listen on the ear, and as the record reaches “Sulfate” which sees plenty of this, it becomes hard work for very little reward. Alongside the further eye-rolling lyricism of “We’ve got to break these chains“, followed by “Don’t let me live for nothing, we’ve all got to die for something” on “Lavender“, the lyricism on display here makes For The Fallen Dreams a challenge to listen to in full.
As closer “Chemicals” closes out the self-titled record, the malaise of the entire experience begins to set in. Lyrics “Poison in my veins” and “Drowning in the flames” are enough on their own to force your head into your hands. The inoffensive nature of not only the drab lyricism, but the music too, makes For The Fallen Dreams feel like nothing more than a bizarre AI-generated metalcore record, with only the most washed and bland core-adjacent bands from the early 2010s plugged into it.
Walking through For The Fallen Dreams‘ deepest moments, it would be difficult to get your ankles wet. There is very little that redeems this record from its hollowness, and that ultimately presents a sound that offers no other reason to exist other than For The Fallen Dreams‘ previous work giving their name some value. It would be generous to call this a fall from grace for the Midwest unit, as this feels more like a plummet.
2/10
For The Fallen Dreams is out this Friday, via Arising Empire.