Album Review: Famous Last Words - 'Council of the Dead'

2014 has seen some absolutely brilliant releases. Everything from Blitz Kids to Vanna, from Every Time I Die to Comeback Kid, bands appear to have really stepped up to their A-Game, making Album of the Year decisions something of immense difficulty.

Yet as always, there are some absolute shockers. Albums that are so gut-wrenchingly bad, you have to stick tampons into your ears to stop the bleeding (try it, it works). Albums that are so low in quality, they could have only had a writing team of a half-baked potato and a soggy carrot.

‘Council of the Dead’ however, is one big wet soggy carrot in itself.

Spoiler alert: it sucks.

It seems as if there’s been a case of “unoriginal-and-as-boring-as-fuckitis” going around this winter as Famous Last Words are suffering from it hard. From beginning to end, this record is an absolute blunder of music. Breakdowns are in such abundance, we wouldn’t be surprised if Oprah started giving them out on her show next week! This isn't empty criticism simply for the sake of it, employing a discerning musical approach, it's the open string chugs that are the leading role here, with the screams providing an undesirable backdrop. It's generic and uninspired, and doesn't move the music forward.

The "quintessential" cleans vocals equally inhibit. As per usual, when it comes to cruddy metalcore acts, the vocals are so over-produced and auto-tuned; they may as well have R2-D2 in the vocal booth.

The reason why we aren’t mentioning song names is because for the simple fact, this album is one long song. From the time you click play, to the time you rip your ear-phones out, pretty much nothing will have changed in terms of structure or aesthetic, or lack-thereof.

While this genre of music is maligned, it's not a matter of going in for an easy kill by adopting the popular opinion that labels this music as terribly lacklustre and counterproductive. If talent, consideration and effort is present then credit where credit's due. However, looking at this dispassionately, from singing to song-writing depth and varying styles of playing, ‘Council of the Dead’ highlights Famous Last Words have roughly none of it.

Let's make the point painfully clear, we're not having a go at the band members personally, rather just the music they play. If you are fan of this band, keep doing so. Don’t let some guy on the internet expressing his opinion annoy or stop you from enjoying whatever music pleases you. For the neutral and unbiased, there is no fun to be found here though. ‘Council of the Dead’ isn’t a pretty name and judging a book by its cover, you could tell this record was going to blow harder than a girl on a street corner in the red-light district.

1.Letter To The Council

2.Council Of The Dead

3.The Fog

4.Hell In The Headlights

5.Brothers In Arms

6.The Killing Zone

7.Fading Memories

8.Entity

9.The Uprise

10.My Life Before My Eyes

11.One In The Chamber

12.The End Of The Beginning