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Label: Equal Vision - Rating:
Heads-up! Describe the style of music that would come out of Rush, Coheed & Cambria, Faith No More, and The Refused being locked in a room with a bare minimum of equipment and no direction, with the results to be produced by Terry Date (Deftones, Pantera, Incubus, Dredg, etc.). You've got three seconds, and...well, you lost two of those when I listed Terry Date's production work.
The Fall of Troy sounds like pretty much whatever the hell you want to describe them as. At one minute (album opener "Panic Attack!") they are rocking out with a mostly straightforward sound: some crazy guitar work (porn-wah-wah turned metal), great range on the screamy-to-melodic vocals, and a stomping rhythm section. But then they fly from over-the-top aggressive post-hardcore ("Straight-Jacket Keelhauled") to plodding, bluesy/emo croon-fests ("Webs"). A standout track is "People and Their Lives," which somehow channels Coheed, Faith No More and something else that lies somewhere on this side of thrash, but after a fist-pumping instrumental break turns into what could easily be mistaken for a classic Rush moment.
How do they do it? More importantly, do they do it well?
This reviewer has little to offer on the how's, but as for the second question, the answer is a resounding yes. There's a strange dichotomy that neatly sums up this band: a bright-eyed, naive sense of fun wherein The Fall of Troy do not take themselves too seriously, paired with astounding technical musicianship that shows they can fool around in a way not unlike Steve Vai fooling around. Not to say they sound like the Guitar God in any way, but that some of the lyrics and the sudden blasts of aggression followed by ridiculous guitar posturing and "we're just jamming the hell out" attitude comes off as sophomorish, but executed with undeniable instrumental precision.
There's really something for almost everyone on this album, but once again there's a qualifier: this is not pop-friendly radio rock (though there's moments of that, too). These guys could rock out with Coheed just as surely as they could with Dillinger Escape Plan. They can turn a song around on a dime, and pull out atmospherics and crazy guitar sounds that could get them on the same bill as Fantomas...or Rage Against the Machine. The singing's mostly "clean" and melodic, but when it's brutal, it's like early material from Isis, or maybe even screechy-voiced death metal bands like Carnal Forge.
To sum up: check this album out. Give the entire album a listen; even if you skip through a track here and there, make sure you at least touch on every single track, because more likely than not, you'll start to pick up on just what this band is about. And what that is, exactly, isn't something that can be pinned down inside of a few million words. Just know that the musicianship is technically astounding, the vocals have a ridiculous range, and just like Faith No More, early Incubus and the like, you don't have to take the album completely seriously. It's fun, their talented, and Terry Date produced the hell out of this thing to make it sound like you're standing on top of the amp in these guys' garage, having your feet shredded by the bass-heavy chugging parts, your ears split by the high wails of the guitar transitions, and your mind shattered by the stunning wizardry of the off-the-wall three-piece that is The Fall of Troy.
Like The Fall of Troy? Check out: Faith No More, Sikth, Coheed & Cambria.
