Focus Reviews

The Fire The Flood - Truth Seekers
Style: Hardcore/Metalcore
Running Time: 28 Minutes and 38 Seconds
Label: http://www.nosleeprecs.com


This album came out of left field for me, I truly didn't see it coming. When 'Truth Seekers' was popped into my CD player, I thought for sure I'd be in for a bland attempt at metalcore with mixings of death metal and I was pleasantly surprised within the first 15 seconds of the album to not be greeted by At The Gates-esque riffs. The music contained on 'Truth Seekers' is lacking innovation sure, but its also not a complete dive into mediocrity, yes it does get fairly boring near the end of the album but perhaps I just wasn't in the correct frame of mind for an entire album of ferocious hardcore. The bass kicks are deep and full, the guitar work is exceptionally simple, yet abrasive enough to give off the vibe or essence of being the work of a truly dedicated hardcore band.

When deciding if you'd enjoy this album, take to mind bands like Coalesce and Botch with a little bit of Nora and Norma Jean thrown in on the heavier breakdown-ish moments that all have thrown into their brand of chaotically charged hardcore.

Though The Fire The Floods album 'Truth Seekers' may be lacking in deviation from song to song, its not necessarily a bad thing (from time to time) for this brand of chaotic hardcore. The amount of passion felt behind each of the songs is almost more than enough to carry each one individually through passages of stuttering guitar work and heavy as balls breakdowns. But that's just not enough to take this album into the realm of 'above the pack' type bands.

At times The Fire The Floods effort does seem a bit stagnant, as felt when the album gets towards its ending tracks. The feeling is mainly due to the lack of, as stated before, deviation between songs. You almost feel like you've been hearing one song for about 20 minutes towards the end of 'Truth Seekers' which is really not something you want to hear. Yes, the album works well if you're in the mood for repetition and emotive screaming, but if you're not completely in the mood for that, 'Truth Seekers' just leaves you feeling depressed a little. It's still a fantastic album with enough stuff thrown in for every fan of hardcore, it just reaches a point of non-movement at the end. The Ten minute long closer "The Blizzard" is on the clock only four minutes and about 30 seconds of actual music, the rest is a long drawn out passage of what seems to be crowded market bantering behind dissonant chords being strummed on what sounds to be an acoustic guitar. Along side that, theres also the beating of some sort of hand drum, bongos... something and a little bit of a conversation at the tail end before the second 2 minute long song breaks in with a fury.

Overall The Fire The Flood have done well with 'Truth Seekers' it's just too bad that at the end of the day, its not entirely a great listen if you're in the wrong mood. I can see this band being very well received within the hardcore community, even if only for the Coalesce and Botch leanings of their music. But for me it got boring too fast, its only about 20 odd minutes of actual music, with 6-7 being random sounds, the albums already too short to throw that sort of experimenting into the mix, it just didn't seem to work completely in the long run for The Fire The Flood.

Score: 5.5/10