Letter To The Exiles - Make Amends

I have been nothing but disappointed with Letter to the Exiles. It's my own fault. The band never promised to be A Love For Enemies part two. I thrust that expectation upon them. Just because Erich Barto fronted both bands, doesn't mean they need to sound similar. But that was what I cast on the band and both their self-released ep and Strike First Records debut didn't work for me.

Insert Make Amends, the band's new record. Call it a fresh start for Letter to the Exiles. The band is now on Facedown Records and also minus Erich Barto. Chris King is the new frontman and for those, like myself, hoping for something new and different and Letter to the Exiles, you got it.

Open Graves kicks the record off strong and from the opening note you can tell that LTTE have stepped up their game on Make Amends. The album is polished, more melodic and heavier. Conversations With Fallen Saints highlights the bands growth in all of these areas. Yeah, the breakdown is almost a thing of the past at this point but the band balances melodic hardcore and metalcore very nicely. The melodic riffs and clean vocals help balance the breakdowns creating really nice movement within the songs. Mark Randazzo has come up with some killer melodic riffs on Make Amends that he balances with some nice August Burns Red style metalcore riffs. They Made Me The War Machine is an excellent example of Letter to the Exiles' balance in sound.

Makes Amends' only flaw is in the engineering of the album. There's nothing sonically special about the record. It's not grand, large, and lush sounding and it's not crisp and really hard hitting either. It's just middle of the ground. It's not a hinderance, just an observation.

Make Amends is a fresh start for Letter to the Exiles and the band embraces it. Make Amends is not a record for heavy music fans to ignore.