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Band: Kingston Falls
Title: Armada On Mercury
Label: Facedown Records
Review By: JoshIVM

Tracklisting:

01. The Christening
02. Armada On Mercury
03. Too Hot For Cold Feet
04. On Contentment
05. The Great Divide
06. Freakin’ eXtreme!
07. The Illusionist’s Dream
08. Songs & Fables
09. Curse of Might
10. Dry Skin (Moz Def)
11. Sand Castle Karma
12. Too Bad About Your Situation

Kingston Falls in the past few years have lost a vocalist and been bumped on to Facedown from its imprint Strike First. Their debut on Facedown and first with Nate Lambright Dale, their new vocalist leading the way, recently released. I had previously reviewed their last album and ranked pretty low because of the mix between vocalist and band, so I was hoping for a change there. Sadly, I could probably just write the same review because it is my complaint once again.

After the short intro, which I did like, the vocals were an immediately noticeable issue for me. The opening guitar lick was cool and then came this raspy scream. It sounded like someone who’d been on the road and their voice was shot. The singing during the chorus was great but again didn’t fit with the screams. This is pretty much how I felt about most tracks until I reached “Freakin’ eXtreme!“. This was the band’s first single and I think a mistake to release. It really got me excited for this album which turned out to sound nothing like this song. It is the odd man out here. Sadly, I wish the album sounded more like this. I’m assuming that the vocals here were also done by Nate and I see no reason they couldn’t have done this throughout the album. If all of the songs on the album were like this it would have received a 9 of 10 or higher guaranteed. I think there are plenty of parts throughout the album as it is that this punk metal style could have been utilized. Some examples are upbeat tracks like “Curse of Might” and “Too Bad About Your Situation“. Much of the singing on the album would fit a more punk oriented album as well. But enough of my hopes, you’ll have to decide for yourself on this one.

Overall Rating: They are better all around since releasing Crescendo Of Sirens, but I still cannot get into them. They just keep picking the wrong vocalists. Neither of the vocalists were bad, but with the sound they are pursuing it just doesn’t work for me. Some of the music here is awesome but I can’t enjoy it with the vocals. This band could be so much better if they wanted to and I think “Freakin’ eXtreme!” and other portions of songs show that. My opinion, switch the screams for yells and do more singing to go with the punk/metal/hardcore approach. (6.5/10)

Standout Tracks: “Freakin’ eXtreme!”, “Too Bad About Your Situation”, “On Contentment”

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