Frontside Offer Little that is New or Entertaining to an Oversaturated Genre
Just like the fading days of nu-metal, metalcore has quickly become a genre glutted with band after band after band who can only peddle out generic versions of the same formula. Whilst former trailblazers could offer something new, so many bands jumping on the bandwagon now have nothing new to offer and Frontside represent this trend perfectly.
The problem is really, for a genre that is guitar-orientated Frontside lack the riffs, the grooves and the rhythms in their string work to hit the spot. There really is nothing in here to separate them from the rest of the metalcore mob. Combine this with a rather lacklustre rhythm section; no real exciting drumming or tempo changes here folks; and you have what makes for a listen, which whilst it's hardly offensive in anyway, is not actually entertaining either.
Furthermore, the issue again, as with most metalcore bands is the vocals. The growled are just far too "cookie cookie cookie" to really be anything more than slightly amusing whilst the clean vocals just sound nasal and really grated on this listener's nerves. The metalcore stylings would be ok in most bands if they simply got a good singer, but alas so many including Frontside fall into the trap of terrible vocals most notably on the awful-sounding 'Burden of Hell'.
I hate just to slap the tag of 'generic metalcore' onto a CD, it just seems so easy, so overdone and so, well, generic. However, this is the only way I can describe Frontside's latest. In a genre that is oversaturated with alot of cash-in-crud, Frontside set themselves apart in no easily discernable way to their detriment. Quite frankly I'd give this one a miss unless you live, sleep, breathe and quite simply love metalcore.