From First to Last – Throne to the Wolves
Post-hardcore band From First to Last suffers from an identity crisis. Maybe it has something to do with the ever-changing lineup. Perhaps it involves the fact that since their 2002 inception, they’ve seen themselves signed to at least four record labels. Whatever the reason, their sound changes from album to album, going from heavy electronica influences in Heroine to the guitar-riff-heavy thrash metal that you find on Throne to the Wolves. Most bands would call it an evolution in their creative direction.
The one thing that holds true through every album, every label change, every new member that comes and subsequently goes is; From First to Last is horrible at best. Throne to the Wolves is a crybaby nightmare, taking potshots at everything from hardcore bands with Christian beliefs, to punk music, to anyone else they think is safe. In the first song, “Cashing Out,” before the first verse is even over, in a tone dripping wet with sarcasm, Matt Good is whining about boo-hoos about hardcore music gone Jesus’ way and Disney owning punk. The song also starts a trend that pops up throughout the album where Good takes an aside and stops singing and talks his lyrics out. It’s less rap and more dumb.
There are moments to the album that aren’t too bad to listen to. “Now That You’re Gone,” the last and best song on the album starts off like a syncopated mess that any post-hardcore band starts their songs off with, before pulling it all together. From First to Last pulls it off masterfully, and then something terrible happens. There are a couple of times where the band tinkers with auto-tune, which is just the worst. “Now That You’re Gone” suffers from this affliction. Also, “Soft War,” a two minute interlude of sorts, is a bass thumping break from the rest of the album with aura-inducing synth, where Matt Good lets loose on the T-Pain application in his iPhone, going to town on some other unsuspecting subject, I’m sure. I’d tell you who, but I hate auto-tune and my brain started eating itself.
Matt Good has aspirations to be the next Cove Reber of Saosin, and when Good isn’t attempting to cleverly slam the critics that are “getting rich” on his art (Mike, where’s my check?), he could actually pull off a pretty all right Saosin tribute band. Even so, imitation isn’t always the most sincerest form of flattery. The lyrics are juvenile on the surface because that’s all there is to it. There is nothing underlying here; very in your face, very upfront, very terrible.
Release Date: March 16, 2010
Order: HERE
Official MySpace Page: HERE
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- Saosin – In Search of Solid Ground
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- Jonny Craig – A Dream is a Question You Don’t Know How to Answer
The band has changed from album to album simply because of the endless member changes. The band evolved between “My Teen Angst” and “Heroine” in the tiniest way, but still kept the same FFTL sound. With the entry of their new vocalist, the band changed with their self-titled and therefore kept that sound in the slightest bit for “Throne to the Wolves”.
I love “Throne to the Wolves”, it’s FFTL’s strongest work to date and they can improve, but for now this album is good enough to hold me over. That blend from electronica based post-hardcore to punkish faster paced tracks offers up a new experience with every single song.