After The Fall

Fort Orange

Written by: PP on 07/09/2009 23:05:48

New York based After The Fall should strike a chord with people who count Kid Dynamite, A Wilhelm Scream and This Is A Standoff among their favorite bands as their new record "Fort Orange" effectively sounds like someone put the sounds of those three bands in a box and shook it for a moment before investigating the result of the mix. Should none of those bands ring a bell (you'll probably fail your fourth grade punk rock test next week if that's the case), then it should be noted that we're dealing with a combination of melodic hardcore and technical punk rock.

But surely it's a paradox to claim that a notoriously loosely played genre can be combined with the ultra tightness of the other one? Well, apparently not. The singing mostly follows a poppy, melodic format (Kid Dynamite meets This Is A Standoff style), occasionally spilling over to hardcore punk style shouting (think Rise Against), justifying the melodic hardcore category. The production is slick, creating a super tight instrumental landscape where the guitars constantly reference A Wilhelm Scream's high-octane speed and technical riffs, meaning that we're definitely dealing with technical punk rock. The songs overall, however, are somewhat forgettable aside from a few gems. "Fort Orange", for instance, could've almost been on a Belvedere album, and "Thomas Philbrick" is memorable is because of the "do you remember...that Millencolin record... I won't forget how fucking much you meant" line towards the end of the song. But too many of the songs just race by lightning speed without making much of an impression.

That's particularly strange, considering how many amazing bands are in the list of acts who After The Fall sound like: No Trigger, Strike Anywhere, Rise Against, Propagandhi, A Wilhelm Scream, This Is A Standoff, Belvedere, Kid Dynamite....shouldn't a band combining all those be my favorite band? In theory, yes, but in comparison, "Fort Orange" feels like a second rate record because it just doesn't have enough memorable songs to stick to your mind for longer periods of time even though the whole album lasts under 24 minutes. But if they're able to write more songs like the ones mentioned below in the future, then we're talking.

Download: Armpit, Thomas Philbrick
For the fans of: Kid Dynamite, This Is A Standoff, A Wilhelm Scream, No Trigger
Listen: Facebook

Release date 07.07.2009
Raise Your Fist / Ass-Card Records

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