All Else Fails – The Forever Lie – EP Review
For fans of Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Korn and FFDP!
Canadian Band All Else Fails probably won’t understand this reference – they might, we’ve no idea whether this TV advert even exists in Canada – but if you watch as much shitey TV as we do, you’ll get it! It’s the one where there’s a Magpie talking his mate into giving him all his unwanted stuff and at the end the Magpie shouts “BELTTTTAAA” in a rubbish Geordie accent….and that’s how we feel about this EP! It’s a belter all right!!
Opening track “Beneath the Waves” has an intro that reminds us of a sequence from a superhero film. The hero is being beaten up, cities are being destroyed, there’s clips of orphans crying, people running and screaming but all this wanton destruction inevitably motivates the super-powered one to save the day. Then the track kicks in and it’s an absolute toe tapper, one of those songs that you immediately start head banging and air-guitaring too even though you don’t really know the track; primal instinct at work! Simply put, it’s heavy, angry and everything you want from an opener.
“The Sons of Plenty” then takes everything up a notch. It’s an aggressive fist pumper and while metalcore elitists will probably get sweaty with us for suggesting this, it reminds us of, oh gosh, thrash metal (that’s right you dicks, we compared one thing to another, hope your buttholes are squeaking with anger). A quick mention to the music video for “The Sons of Plenty” where All Else Fails are playing in a muddy field and everyone’s a bit muddy and playing their instruments all excited like and then they set the poor helpless instruments on fire. #InstrumentLivesMatter.
This leads onto “The Forever Lie” which, at its heart, is a singalong, an arms locked around our brothers and sisters moment, shouting out all the words that you know as loud and emotively as you can! “The Flesh From Our Bones” then takes the personal, emotive aspects of the preceding “Twice Broken” and pumps them up with more of the anger and energy from the earlier tracks. It’s melodic, it’s an absolute journey from start to finish and it’s home to a savage breakdown capable of making you fart with excitement (which is definitely not what we did when we heard it the first time).
That brings us to the final track, “Terracide”, which has one of those beginnings where you just know it’s going to be good. It’s like when you start a new TV series and the opening sequence just hooks you in and before you know it you’ve done all seven series in one weekend binge; that kind of beginning!
So, if all else fails, then listen to All Else Fails! (and that’s why we’re on the big bucks). 8/10
Leave a comment