Kingston Falls - Armada on Mercury

Facedown Records

April 29, 2008, 01:25 PM

When; in music, you wait five years for something it’s either going to be a resounding success or a tragic failure. Kingston Falls aren’t new to making music or touring, they’ve done extensively during their collective lifetime, but now it’s time for a new adventure. When you’ve built it as comprehensively as Kingston Falls have done during their time it’s hard to see this album being anything but good. That’s exactly what it is.

The first impression that really forces itself upon you is that they really do strive to make music both epic and meaningful. For what they produce alone, they can be forgiven for taking so long to actually get it out there. Combining melody with riffing, heavy guitars they manage to create a really refreshing sound. So many bands aspire to do something different and fall short because they end up doing something which has already been done or just mix two existing genres and call it unique. Kingston Falls have made everything completely their own and have succeeded in sounding so familiar but actually offering something completely different.

The title track is the immediate stand out. Following on from the opening ambience of 'The Christening', it emerges with a subtle acoustic tune before exploding into a massive barrage of distortion and screaming. There’s even an element of dance in one of the drum beats, it’s a five and a half minute epic which truly does set the tone. Kingston Falls don’t disappoint throughout, songs like ‘The Great Divide’ and ‘Freakin’ eXtreme!’ offer something different again, the later sounding more like a pop-punk song for the most part, whereas ‘The Illusionist’s Dream’ take a page from a much heavier book and reiterates that part of their sound. ‘Songs & Fables’ once again stands out by promoting the more melodic elements, this album has it all.

Based on the evidence, Kingston Falls made the right decision in waiting five years to unleash a debut full length upon the world. In that time they’ve perfected their song craft and writing to near perfect levels of accuracy. Everything you’d expect from a top class album is contained within, if you like yours heavy then you’ll love this, albeit with a bit of melody thrown in for good measure and wider scope of audience appeal. Kingston Falls have just about ticked all the boxes, and if it takes another five years to get a second album out of them, not only will it be worth the wait, but this one should also keep you entertained for that long.