Restore the Balance

I'm not averse to some catchy metalcore once in a blue moon. Hell, I oftentimes get a hankering for earlier As I Lay Dying and All that Remains, and find few faults in bestowing the "listenable' merit upon may of these acts. It seems like the better quality goods sort of faded after around 2005 however, and save for a few newer groups like Soulnerve hailing back to earlier, more reputable eras, there isn't a whole lot to see anymore. Rise to Fall is a relatively stock Spanish outfit that while having the conscious wherewithal to deliver most of the expected tropes, do very little to vacate themselves from the stagnated pack. The only reason you might care is the fact that they employ a fair aggregate of keyboards, sort of in the style of Silent Descent, albeit far less brazen. The sophomore effort Defying the Gods was a bit more balanced than this debut, which is clumsy, loud and frankly pretty neanderthal-sounding at times.

One may instinctively turn to the keyboards to sell the more dapper appeals, but they just aren't employed enough. The majority of Restore the Balance is melodic metalcore so standard it hurts. Production values are clamorous and accentuate the modern guitar tone, which while containing something close to gonads, remains somewhat bottlenecked in the mix and sort of drowns out everything else. Gutiérrez's clean tone is suitable for the style and fits like a glove, but there are of course tons of yowling shouts to mitigate before reaching anything of value. There is a fair amount of diversity vocally, but a lot of this falls into some sort of grey area between shouting and growling, which sounds atonal and just...uncomfortable. I've seen a lot of metalcore bands use this style, and I really just have no ear for it; can we move on, please? Sometimes he "talks" over the riffs and it just sucks because his accent is so thick and distracting. The band tries to sell such vitriol with the angry shouting, but honestly the riffs take this concept farther on their own. Rise to Fall do well if they dropped the growls altogether and just relied on Gutiérrez's singing chops, which are infinitely better.

The better moments remind me of The Art of Balance-era Shadows Fall, and while "Rise from Drama" and "Unknown Presence" both exemplify something approaching a respectable balance, the record just sort of trails off at the end, ceasing activity by the powers that be far past its actual expiration date. Sometimes even the keyboards contribute to the decay evident, what with the frankly annoying bleeps and bloops during the verses of "Forbidden Lullaby." Others like "Infected Wound" tie together nicely on the refrain, and Rise to Fall should make sentient use of accentuated synths during the choruses, which are honestly the band's one true saving grace discounting the vocals. Some are better than others, but at least the uninventive songwriting makes it easy to predict what is coming next, and after one or two tracks, you know what you are getting here.

There are occasional eruptions of great soloing along with some more unexpected instrumental deviations, but I can do without Rise to Fall on the whole. The concept may have some potential on paper, but for a style driven into the earth courtesy of overexposure, there needs to be more innovation than this to coherently pull it off. Sadly, these Spaniards haven't taken much criticism to heart, as the sophomore record is just more of the same crap. There are maybe three good songs here, and even that is sort of stretching it. This bands oftentimes gets associated with acts like Blood Stain Child for the keyboard use, but don't come here expecting consistent symphonics; these associations are nothing more than sleight of hand.