Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for For the Fallen Dreams - Wasted Youth (2012)
Wow... I never thought a metalcore band that was at the top of their game in the first 3 albums would drop down in quality like this. They would've had the potential to keep up their fantastic style of adding melody to the heaviness and metallic hardcore, but Wasted Youth had really disappointed their fans, having gone too far from what they're known for, overdosing on melody and clean singing. I'm sure those fans have migrated to listening to The Ghost Inside where their ex-drummer Andrew Tkaczyk is at now...
Back Burner had a much better balance clean singing and melody with brutal growls and heaviness. Wasted Youth went too deep into the former side. After producing Back Burner, Tom Denney decided to give the band a different writing path that includes emo-sounding choruses which are more suitable in his former band A Day To Remember. They make emo choruses, For the Fallen Dreams make heavy breakdowns. Denney took advantage of the production by making the guitars and harsh vocals sound muddy, while the cleans get more clarity. Now those cleans by Dylan Richter sound forced and lack their earlier power. No wonder Tkaczyk prefers to stay with The Ghost Inside!
Opener "Hollow" sounds promising with the band's heaviest riffing at the time. The melodic chorus and the brutal breakdown are in a better contrast here. Richter's clean in "Resolvent Feelings" sound like they been run through autotune. "Please Don't Hurt" is where Dylan Richter attempts to add a punk edge to his cleans but ends up sounding whiny and turning that song into a draggy disaster. The heavier riffing comes back on in "Until It Runs Out" that can make you feel the moshing adrenaline.
"Sober" is a decently catchy song. "Living a Lie" sounds like it's written the way A Day of Remember had back in their first two albums, and it works quite well. The poppy hooks in the beginning of "Always About You" sound great here and make that track another highlight. "Moving Forward" doesn't really move forward at all, attempting to mix A Day to Remember with As I Lay Dying but ultimately falling flat on the face. Then we have the album's heaviest entry "Your Funeral", yet the guitars and vocals sound too bland and not reaching the heights of their earlier albums.
"When Push Comes to Shove" has some nice surprises that end up spoiled by those d*mn vocals. Interestingly, "No One to Blame" makes a solid highlight despite heading closer to easycore. It has a catchy chorus of gang vocals, and the screams sound more decent. Listening to the short two-minute "Waking Up Alone", I'm appalled by how tone-deaf Richter is even the softest moments. "Pretending" closes this ill-fated album quite heavily, including a powerful breakdown to remind me of what they were.
There's not much that sounded right for this band in their incoherent weakest link, Wasted Youth. But don't worry, For the Fallen Dreams will become better again when the professional writing skills of their former drummer make a comeback in the next round....
Favorites (only songs I really like): "Hollow", "Until It Runs Out", "Living a Lie", "Always About You", "No One to Blame", "Pretending"