Altsounds - Grace Will Fall - Second Album [Album]

Ok I might as well get this out of the way first and foremost. Sweden based Grace Will Fall's admittedly punishing second album (tentatively titled 'Second Album') bored me to tears, so much so that I found it hard to sit through once let alone twice. It wasn't for the extremities of the record either, I have been known to enjoy MUCH more intense music in my day (Throbbing Gristle, Anaal Nathrakh and Sunn 0)))'s bleak as sin 'Black One' record come to mind) but this is just uninspired and unimaginative. Music this heavy and dark needs atmosphere, it needs dynamic and (yes as much as a contradiction as it may seem) it needs hooks. This album has barely any of those things and plays out as a cynical, by numbers ploy to appeal to a niche market that evidently care more for quantity than quality.

The closest successful band I can think to compare Grace Will Fall too would be Dillinger Escape Plan. Yet where Dillenger utilise texture, melody, drastic dynamics and interesting tempo shifts, Grace Will Fall pile in another few dozen cut and paste hardcore riffs and vocals which (impressive though they are on first listen) never cut quite as deep as they are obviously trying to.

It probably sounds like I hate this band, but the truth is I really don't, they do what they do with an assured swagger and subtle menace which will no doubt endear them fruitfully to hardcore scenesters. However everything i love about music (and thus rate it by), be it melody, rhythm, atmosphere, lyrical depth or just plain FEEL, seems either absent or flat in Grace Will Fall. They seem to even poke fun at their own lack of variety by tacking on 2 utterly pointless interlude (one of which includes an accordion of all things) and this only serves to underline the records refusal to shift from the template.

It's tragic in a way because there are shades of promise scattered throughout. 'Bittersweet' contains some superb, Pixies like surf guitar sections which really underline the more brutal sections of the track. And final track 'By The Way' really gives itself time to breathe with a truly sinister and gently building fury that is more 'Earth' than 'Every Time I Die'. It's a side to the band which I would love to see more of and it's a shame it arrives so late into the album as by this point i was pretty disillusioned.

Overall that Grace Will Fall essentially couldn't be bothered to title their second album pretty much sums up their music. It's painfully unimaginative and one dimensional but there are sparks of potential hidden away inside. It's obvious they could be a really decent band were they to push the boundaries a little.... but the song remains the same.....

.... It's got balls but it aint got no soul.

Tracklisting

1. The Assassination Of Peggy Sue
2. New Song
3. Celebration
4. Heroine
5. Mother Said
6. Dead To Me
7. (So)
8. *Bittersweet*
9. Pa Taden
10. 07:53
11. Freedom Pt.2
12. La Fine
13. (Della Famiglia)
14. Apply Resistance
15 *By The Way*