As with our previous review of Attack Attack! and its self-titled sophomore album, we find ourselves delving into the screamo/electronica realm with From First To Last’s fourth release, Throne to the Wolves.
Released in mid-March, Throne to the Wolves quickly made its way to heavy circulation in my life and it must have been that way for a lot of people since the album debuted at No. 24 of the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums and No. 45 on The Top Independent Albums. Unfortunately, since the release, the band has gone on indefinite hiatus to focus on other projects.
With musical characteristics similar to Attack Attack!, FFTL implements a mixture of electronica effects and beats with hard, layered guitars and screaming. Starting off with the high-octane track, “Cashing Out,” FFTL establishes their position pretty quickly with those hard, driving guitars and melodies. Lead singer/rhythm guitarist Matt Good’s almost nasally-esque voice juxtaposes the rocking sound nicely while electronica-inspired beats are found sprinkled throughout.
Another hard-hitting highlight is “G.R.I.T.S.” which starts off hard, then goes soft, then back and forth again. I love songs that segue into one another and this track does so perfectly with the next track, “Going Lohan,” by finger-tapping the guitar strings into an awesome head-banging intro. With the use of double-bass pedals (or perhaps just an incredibly buff leg handling a single pedal) on the drums, Derek Bloom gives the intro a death metal appeal.
Seeing as I’m a weekend feminist, I can appreciate “The He Man Woman Haters Club,” which sees Good singing about the struggles in finding a quality girl who isn’t a clone running around the bar scene, throwing up on the curb every night. “It’s so hard meeting girls I respect in all these awful places…The only people I see are either/Down on their luck, drunken girls at the pub/Or the skanky almost-hooker types that dance at the club/Why did I get dressed up?/To walk around sayin’ ‘What the fuck?’/WHAT THE FUCK!?” The lyrics can get pretty cheesy (“A blonde in a short shirt no bra and a thong may be fun to make eyes at/Not bring home to your mom/I want a girl that can talk/I want a girl that can think/Not someone I’m ashamed of every that they speak/I want a girl that takes pride/In the strength of her mind”), but I can appreciate the band making an attempt at separating decent girls from the indecent.
Lastly, “Soft War” is definitely to FFTL as “Shut Your Mouth” is to Attack Attack! This heavily-effected track with far away drums slows down the pace with flooding beats and Good’s robotic voice and moves in nicely (not seamlessly) to the final track of the album, “Now That You’re Gone,” a track that starts off hard-rocking but closes out Throne with robotic voice effects fading into black.
Though band members are joining/creating other bands and may not reunite, we have a solid album in Throne to the Wolves as their last release (for now). I must say, this album was a fast favorite when it first came out and I couldn’t stop listening but after discovering Attack Attack! and realizing that their beats are thicker and quicker and their guitars are heavier and crunchier, coming back to Throne was lacking.
Attack Attack! is FFTL on crack and it’s every bit as addicting!
Buy the album at our record store on Amazon
Here are some other pages on ETS that you may be interested in:
- Album Review: Attack Attack! by Attack Attack!
- Covers Revue: Killswitch Engage covers “Holy Diver,” originally by Dio
- Artist of the Week: Motley Crue
- Editorial – The Death of Metal
- Album Review: The Constant by Story of the Year