Reviewed by Greg Sammons

After a solid debut on Facedown Records I was quite looking forward to this release. Perhaps that was where I went wrong, as my expectations simply were not met. If I had no expectations ahead of reviewing this CD I'd say it was a reasonable soft-end metalcore effort incorporating some interesting elements of emo, with the standout track being "Somewhere Up Ahead". Instead I have this worrying desire to write a negative diatribe about generic mediocrity. So how about I try and remain diplomatic and say "they've taken a different musical direction than some of us might have hoped," ie, a dull one. Perhaps you can remember when Still Remains released their second album: disappointing wasn't it? Or when Haste The Day even bothered to let us hear 'Pressure The Hinges'? Both are in the same musical ball park and both showed a band that softened up, were over polished and as a result just ended up so bleugh. There's just so little musical ingenuity, like the two aforementioned bands, they seemed to have already gone past their peak - and that peak seems more like a hillock in hindsight.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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