Back after a 2 year absence, Canada-based Thousand Foot Krutch (Trevor McNevan – vocals, Joel Bruyere – bass, Steve Augustine – drums) attempts to relaunch itself into the spotlight with The Flame In All Of Us. Going on the success of 2003's hit album Phenomenon, and to a lesser extent 2005's The Art of Breaking, it seems that the band is poised to break into the mainstream. And that is certainly the impression one gets of the album. Everything about it, from the squeaky clean production to the removal of rap elements and less hardcore stylistic tendencies, and even to the simplistic album artwork, screams major label intrusion. Nevertheless, the band is still signed to Tooth & Nail, which is a fantastic label in my opinion, in terms of discovering and nurturing new talent in the rock scene. Getting down to business, The Flame In All Of Us is a solid album, with heavy rock riffs and tender ballads that will no doubt hit home with the mainstream rock audience.
Track Listing
- The Flame In All Of Us
- Falls Apart
- New Drug
- What Do We Know?
- Favourite Disease
- My Home
- My Own Enemy
- Learn To Breathe
- Inhuman
- Broken Wing
- The Safest Place
- Wish You Well
I've seen a variety of bands which use the title track of the album as a single. To me, the whole notion of a title track is distorted, because the title of the album should reflect the overall theme, not just a single track (while that may not be the case with a lot of albums, a title track immediately draws unnecessary attention to itself while not necessarily being better than the other tracks on the album). Naturally, this is a single opinion, and should not be taken as fact, but evidence is found in numerous albums. Anyway, back to the album. Despite being the title track and the first single, The Flame In All Of Us manages to rock out with a riff that will immediately insinuate itself into your brain. Strings are used in the chorus and contrast decently with the hard rocking verse. This is one song that you will either love or hate, and it will either seem repetitive or strike you as a piece of rocking genius. The title track leads immediately into the first single, "Falls Apart". Hard-hitting and fairly poignant in terms of lyrics, it is a bouncy, head-banging song that you will also either love or hate for its repetitive chorus and heavy guitars. The good work of both these tracks is undone to a degree by "New Drug", which tries hard to be a metal-sounding track but ultimately fails. "What Do We Know", the second single, redeems the album somewhat, showcasing the band's softer side and its ability to commentate on the social status of the planet. It is probably the single that will be the most successful on the radio, because of its ballad style and the use of the children's choir, which will be lapped up by listeners. The rest of the album throws up notable highlights such as the string-heavy rocker "Learn to Breathe" and the bass-driven nu-metal of "The Safest Place", which is in my opinion one of, if not the best track on the album. "Wish You Well" is a fitting end to the album, and the added bonus of the hidden track "The Last Song" is one that will pull in listeners.
I cannot fault the band musically. They sound extremely tight together, even with the lack of a permanent guitarist (Phil X recorded the guitar parts for the entire album). This is probably due to the fact that the producer encouraged the band to record with each other, infusing the tracks with more energy than would be the case if the parts had been recorded separately. The bass fills out the low end well, and the drums are simple yet effective. In the mix of the rock goodness, though, I kept having the nagging feeling of "Haven't I heard this before?". Don't get me wrong, the album is good, but it sacrifices the limp traces of originality that were present on the band's previous albums. TFK would have done better to insert more rap and cut back on the mainstream rock style, maybe sacrificing album sales but in the process sanctifying and fine-tuning their style. The Flame In All Of Us will sell copies, and sell them by the bucket load. However, I just sense that if McNevan, Bruyere and Augustine want to make a bigger impact, they will have to come up with something more unique with their follow-up, or revert back to Phenomenon-style nu-metal.
The lyrics are solid and spiritually refreshing, without being too oppressive and in-your-face. Even the aggressive songs manage to strike a reasonably decent balance between raw passion and angst ("The Safest Place" and "Learn To Breathe" come to mind). Also, this album is accessible by both Christian and secular audiences alike, despite the labelling of TFK as a "Christian band", a label which so many bands try to shrug (And I totally support them). TFK do not refer directly to "God" in any of their songs, although there are veiled religious and spiritual references. None of these should deter any listeners away, though.
There are one or two songs that are major flops on this album. "Inhuman" is a failure in every sense of the word. McNevan tries to market the song as "a crunchy rawk anthem", but really it the only sound it remotely resembles is a cacophony of screeching, painful guitar and crackling, unclear bass. Even the lyrics are not able to save the song. "I'm alive because you touched me" is so ridiculously cliched that all it does is make me want to manually delete the track from the disc. Oh, sure, some TFK fans may wail at me for being narrow-minded and not open to TFK's alternative style, but the truth is that "Inhuman" simply fails to complement the other decent rock tunes on the album. "My Own Enemy" succeeds more in this aspect, as it sounds a lot tighter than "Inhuman". However, it still seems to be lacking in the "it" factor that so often separates good bands from great bands, diamonds in the rough from run-of-the-mill albums.
I could say that about the whole album, as a matter of fact. Satisfying as it felt, there was nothing that the band has done a whole lot better than other bands of the same genre (Nickelback, Korn, Creed). I would have liked to see them go for broke and try to reinvent the wheel (figuratively speaking), rather than create hard-rock tunes reminiscent of other bands before them. Regardless, this is an improvement over The Art Of Breaking, and I look forward to the next installment in the Thousand Foot Krutch story.
Rating :3.5/5
-Josh Yuvaraj
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