Friend For a Foe - Source of Isolation (2011)
Friend For a Foe? I mean like if you're very uptight for whatever dumbass reason, and have a female friend that some would consider a "slut", and you HATE sluts, that's essentially the same, right? You can fight against slutshaming, and actively say "Stop slutshaming" when someone says something negative about your friend's sexuality, but by saying "Stop slutshaming", you're essentially calling your friend a slut, which is commonly a shaming word, so it's kind of an endless paradox when you think about it. Also worth noting: Friend For a Foe is a band.
Fronted by Chris Barretto (Ex-Periphery/Ever Forthright/Monuments), the vocals, as always, are pretty damn great for the genre! His singing is passionate and his harsh vocals are absolutely throat-shredding, and with a good league of gentlemen (no, not djentlemen you neckbeards) backing him, it makes it that much more disappointing that this album didn't really stick with me the way I hoped.
Don't get me wrong, guitarist Chris Purvis churns out some pretty good and heavy riffs, and is complimented well by the other band members, but unfortunately, while the riffage can be pretty good, I can't find myself saying that of the songs as a whole. The songs often find themselves becoming by-he-numbers metalcore, despite the skill of everyone in the band and talent of the performances. Chris Barretto's vocals are great, as always, but they often cockblock each other. When you're getting into his harsh vocals, he starts singing, and when you're daydreaming about feeding him grapes while he's singing, he starts screaming! His different vocal styles essentially cockblock each other, and can often make the songs appear as multiple songs stitched together, such as in "Idle Hands", where the chorus sounds like it was ripped out of another song entirely.
I guess my problem with the album is the fact that with such talented people in the band, the music shouldn't come across as by-the-numbers as it does, but hey.. At least it ain't 0-0-0-1 right?! Get it?! It's a jokety joke joke!!
5/10
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Check out this EP for FREE on Friend For a Foe's Bandcamp!
