Album Review: The Dying Things We Live For - Like Moths to Flames
Staying true to their sound, Like Moths to Flames’ third full-length record begins with a lengthy scream, setting the pace for the entire album to follow. While consistency seems to be the goal of the Ohio natives this time around, they do their own metalcore sound almost too well with little experimentation to add dimension to the uniformity.
This record is heavy – heavy breakdowns, heavy guitar riffs, and heavy lyrical themes. The overall impression that comes across is one of anger and hurt. Unclean vocals are normal for this genre of music and frontman Chris Roetter’s screams are some of the cleanest and easiest to understand on the scene at the moment but they become overbearing. The unclean is easily more apparent on every track and swiftly pushes aside the clean melody.
‘Thrown to the Wind’ and ‘The Art of Losing’ are clear standout tracks while many of the others simply fall back into the mix, the screams becoming monotonous and the melodies blending together. In what seems to be an attempt at something different, ‘The Art of Losing’ along with ‘History Repeats’ bring in fast paced lyrics generating a rap/hip hop fusion that’s becoming quite popular thanks to metalcore bands like Enter Shikari and Palisades. It’s not misplaced – just a pleasant surprise that’s very minimally used but with a clear impact.
The band’s previous album, An Eye For An Eye, also contains that driven hate but with a softer edge not seen on this album. ‘In Dreams’ was less vicious and toyed with a more alternative rock sound than metalcore and ‘I Solemnly Swear’ had a subtle yearning bridge that broke up the repetitiousness of fuming screams. The Dying Things We Live For has neither of these fragmentations, staying consistently at the same pace and level for the duration of the track listing.
That being said, the record does have the positive of catchy well written choruses, even if the lyrical content is full of spiteful emotion. It’s upbeat and driving from start to finish and doesn’t stop to give one single fuck along the way.
View on Audio Addict: http://audioaddictmag.co.uk/2015/10/29/review-like-moths-to-flames-the-dying-things-we-live-for/
