RELEASED: November 10th, 2009 by INO Records
In 2005, Flyleaf broke out into almost instant success with their first full length, self titled album. Songs like “I'm so Sick”, “Cassie”, and “All Around Me” have become synonymous with the band name and were huge radio and music TV hits.
Their success was understandable. The material in their first album was refreshingly new and sufficiently different from all other mainstream rock acts out there that it caught relentless fire quite quickly, bands like Evanescence and Paramore likely a little put off at how quickly Flyleaf became part of the mainstream as opposed to their own lengthy climbs to the top.
It's taken them almost half a decade to release a follow up, although mostly at the blame of a seemingly unending tour schedule the band embarked on which has raised their notoriety to unthinkable levels.
In the midst of all this, somehow the band found time to record a follow up to their first record, “Memento Mori”, meaning 'remember, you will die'. The lyrical content continues to have Christian overtones similar to lines like “Do you believe in God” on their song “Cassie”, but this isn't the least bit surprising from a band that wears their faith strongly on their sleeve but probably a turn off for the heathen unbelievers like myself who take the time to listen to it.
One thing that is apparent quickly is that this band has grown a bit in their sound, as much as the entire album still wraps itself around the formula that made their first album so memorable.
Despite scathing reviews, there's redeeming qualities of the opening track, “Beautiful Bride”. The song rings like a true female Metallica incarnation around the Reload era. The bluesy metal riff in the verse is repetitive but it meshes well with Lacey Mosley's bluesy vocal style in the chorus. If anything the track seems like a big shout out to their influences, something that you can't really dock the band points for, especially on a sophomore album.
The lead single truly highlights this band's strengths, which inevitably lie in the vocal melodies and great melodic accompaniment in all the instruments-however simplistic they may be at almost all times. “Again” begins with a very strong synth lead played in a way that is almost defining of the modern alternative rock sound, forming what is probably the strongest track on the album.
Certain tunes on the album like “Chasm” have a forced aggressive feel. This song specifically feels like an attempt at emulating Alice in Chains, however it fails with forgettable vocal lines and a guitar riff that only slightly changes for the chorus, making the song dull.
“The Kind” has an almost post hardcore/post rock feel being composed of spacey guitar delay and straightforward 4/4 timed drums, at times feeling a strong Radiohead influence. The song really doesn't have a strong melody, but the song overall is cohesive, perfect in its balance of aggression and melody and not steering too strongly into the problems they ran into in songs like “Chasm”.
“In the Dark” attempts to repossess some of the aggression their debut album had, but the results are disheartening. The band truly succeeds when they stick to the chorus and delay drenched guitars smothered with harmonic vocals but fail when they try to implement palm muted metal riffs that end up sounding no less disappointing than albums like Reload were for Metallica.
“Set Apart this Dream” is like many of Flyleaf's ballads in that they lack much musical direction. They heavily rely on the lead vocals and the vocal melody and tend to leave the band as being nothing but filler. While this is not unfamiliar territory for this band, this is a flaw that tends to leave these types of songs without a cohesive direction and end up being forgettable at best. It's also the type of thing that ends up in 'Evanescence syndrome', where the vocals completely overshadow the music to a degree that makes the musicians completely unimportant.
“Swept Away” is a song that is a lot less melodic and a little more dissonant than what we're used to hearing from the band. The result ends up being a little interesting, but the singer's spoken rants during the verses truly take away from the song that it almost borders on being a song easily dismissed, but it's saved by a fleeting chorus that could be quickly forgotten if not given more than one listen.
A blast from the past is found in “Tiny Heart”, a ballad in the strong 4/4 rhythm section style that the Beatles and others are known to write in. However, while the song has bits of interesting pieces, the song fails like most of their other ballads in being attention grabbing. By this point in this album I get the feeling that if I hadn't had a favorable view of their first album or if this were the first time I was hearing this band, I would probably have given up listening to the album by around this track-the best tracks coming and going quickly during the first half of the album.
“Treasure”, “Circle”, and “Arise” are more forgettable ballad additions to the album. Their debut album was full of ballads as well, but the melodies were hooky and easy to remember, as cliché as the backing music might seem for an alt rock ballad.
The three songs truly highlight the biggest problem with this disc. There is absolutely no real focus and without a doubt no intent on breaking the mold that made them such successes on their last album. The songs seem to have been recorded and written with the intent of being melodic like their last album, but the skill in writing interesting and immediately recognizable themes is almost completely gone for this album.
Almost every band suffers from “sophomore slump”, meaning that the second album tends to not live up to the debut. This band is no exception, as much as it is easy to see that the effort was definitely put into avoiding a slump.
Hopefully this album is a learning experience for a band that has so many possibilities and a likely bright future. Overall, the album is a huge disappointment and I cannot honestly give this album a good score.
Overall Rating: 2/5
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