FamilyFans Music

###

PRESSURE THE HINGES

Haste the Day / Solid State

Fan Appeal: Teens

Genre: Metal / Hard Music

The new release from metal masters, Haste the Day, is a fast album full of twists and turns throughout.

Musically, probably the best song on this CD is the opening song and title track, "Pressure The Hinges." It starts with a really cool descending guitar line and then proceeds to rock. Next it goes into the chorus, a layered presentation sung by the backup vocalists that is surprisingly good. It then slows down and pares the sound to just singing and a guitar for a few seconds...and then it goes back to rocking all the way through until the end.

The Minor Prophets is another song that deserves attention. This one is a metal melody about healing through pain and (for once in a hard music band) it mostly features singing instead of being dominated by stylized screaming. This song reminds me a lot of some of the stuff that the band Story of The Year would do.

The songs Eye of The Needle and Eremus are both slower transition songs that are mostly dominated by strange sound effects and some light singing. These actually fit nicely with the album, unlike the slower song "InstruMETAL" from HTD's previous album When Everything Falls. One more thing I enjoyed about this CD is that there is so much more actual singing overall than before, which is cool because there never seemed to be enough on their previous works.

I think the worst thing for me was that Haste The Day got a new lead vocalist/screamer. Although he sounds fine, it just isn’t the same as it used be. The bonus DVD that can be bought also disappointed me. It did have some ok parts, but mostly it was just boring. And, on the live concert footage, the sound quality was terrible. That annoyed me because it is on a DVD that is being used for professional marketing and they should have made it sound better. One other thing that bothered me was how there are some times when the lyrics don’t really make any sense, and I like to know what a band means.

Overall, though, this is a good new release that I recommend to any metal fans, or parents of kids who like metal music but are looking for good Christian alternatives to bands like Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold.

FAMILYFANS RATING: B

If members of your family like this CD, then you may want to try…

-When Everything Falls, Haste The Day, Metal. Some of the best metal I’ve ever heard, it is filled with great musicianship.

-Sunrise Over A Sea Of Blood, Mortal Treason, Metal. A band loaded with musical talent and rocks hard and fast through the entire CD.

--Tony Nappa

###