July’s Album Review

I have been slack – I completely forgot about last months album review. Let me make it up to you right now with one! Last months one, in fact. 

Right, so like this is a disclaimer, I haven’t been listening to a full album for a while. My music library is not always on shuffle, only when I am listening to it. But not really. Because you see, I have become slightly obsessed with the very near release of Fit For A King’s latest album. Its coming in September and its almost guaranteed to be on repeat for a couple weeks around the Dunkerley household.

Apple Music has this awesome feature where if an album is coming out, you can add the pre-release to your library and it notifies you each time a new single gets released for that album, and when it does get released, well then BOOM! its in your library. LIKE MAGIC! I have added this album, called Dark Skies to my library and each and every single that has come out so far (which at time of writing is 4 whole songs) has been amazing. 

Now I haven’t been a fan of these guys since Groove recommended them to me. But I added them back to my Groove library because, hey, one day I might enjoy them and they are a really heavy Christian band. So whats not to like, right? Hmm… I didnt enjoy their previous releases, until I heard the song Deathgrip. Seriously, this song is 10/10 for me. And so I added Dark Skies (that album over there) to my library.

Due to this being a bunch of singles for now, you don’t really get a feel for how the album us going to flow. In that case, I will just talk about each song induvially.

The Price of  Agony. What. A. Song. Heavy, melodic, amazing. This song sucked me into the rest of the singles in a big way. Its so well composed, and such impactful lyrics. 

Ryan – the lead singer – goes from growls to clean singing, Bobby and Jared – the guitarist and drummer respectively, time their drops perfectly. Oh and it helps that they set everything on fire for their music video.

Backbreaker comes in next as probably the heaviest song on this album. It should have been called Neckbreaker. Its not often you get a heavy song that has the heavy lyrics to go with it. Being about the social anxiety that Ryan used to suffer from, this song really makes you feel like your being squashed from all angles. Its heavy. Its amazing. Its probably my favorite song so far…

The way of life has pushed me to a living hell
Endless misery, lack of sympathy
I don’t trust the voice inside of me

FIT FOR A KING – BACKBREAKER

At the time of writing, the new song, When Everything Means Nothing had just come out, and I have taken it for a few listens. Its a solid track that I no doubt will end up loving, just like all the others. According to Ryan its all about social media’s impact on our metal health, and the title of the track speaks volumes to this current state that we as a culture find ourselves in. 

The last song so far is Tower of Pain. Its fast, its heavy, it got some amazing drums and yet again, Ryan delivers with fantastic vocals. And just at the right moment, it slows right down to drive home the heaviness that has been percolating these four songs (and no doubt the rest of the album). 

So far, its only four songs, yet these four songs have managed to hype me up for this album. I am super excited to see the reception of this album, to hear the rest, and to watch where the band goes next after this.

And who knows, maybe one day they will find themselves in little ole New Zealand. And I’ll be there. In the pit!

EDIT: The full album has been released and its just great!