Tuesday, April 20, 2010

War of Ages - Eternal


A couple weeks back I downloaded the War of Ages discography. I was really just trying to familiarize myself with the Facedown records roster. I didn't spend a lot of time listening to anything WOA had done but enough to know that they weren't a terrible band. But seeing others reviews of their new disc Eternal as their best yet I was excited to give it a spin.

Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying produced Eternal and to be honest, it shows. Not in a bad way, just in a War of Ages sounds exactly like As I Lay Dying kind of way. Collapse sounds like AILD light. Like a song I heard AN Ocean Between Us only more melodic. They have the screaming verse, sung chorus thing down perfectly. Desire comes in with a drum fill, a song to get the circle pit moving. Again just like An Ocean Between Us only... you know, less awesome.

On it's own Eternal is a nice album and has some really nice moments. Failure sounds like a song you'd have found on a Killswitch Engage record, in a good way. Indecision reminds me of the good things Soul Embraced does. The Fallen is a good straight ahead metal song. The production on the record is nice. Nothing offensive about the drums sounds or mixing of the record. WOA gets the benefit of being Facedown top band.

The problem with all the things that I like about the record is they remind me of some other band. I know distinguishing your band in the metal/hardcore genre can be hard but other bands have something going on that isn't reminding me directly of some other band. And listening to War of Ages just makes me want to listen to whatever band is doing it better.

I will say the albums title track, Eternal, is a great song. The reason I love this song so much; Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. is a guest vocalist on this track and for that, I love the song.

The last track on the record is an instrumental track simply titled, Instrumental. The title, like the track itselfs is just weak, bland, and doesn't do anything interesting. The album just comes to end.

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