Album Review: The Empire Shall Fall - Awaken

The first inception of Killswitch Engage managed to take a relatively unknown band and pushed them onto one of the biggest metal labels going. The story of Jesse Leach's depression during his time with Killswitch Engage instantly puts you in his shoes and empathizes with him, it's nice to see that he's still on good terms with the original band.

After recovering from his depression and settling down in a more relaxed environment. He's back with a new metal band, 'The Empire Shall Fall' sounds nothing like Killswitch Engage does now and sounds more like At the Drive is having a scuff with Between the Buried and Me in a bar and it just so happens that Refused just walked in and are egging them on at the sidelines.

'Awaken' doesn't fuck about with a fancy pants introduction and just kicks straight into it. As if this is a message that is desperate to reach our ears. On 'These Colors Bleed', you can hear that Refused influence I mentioned earlier with the culmination of punk rock weaved together with heavy metal.

Lyrically, the album shouts out to listeners for a call to arms. On the song 'The Kingdom', Leach screams "In this world that we live in, so filled with blind indifference, we have a chance to change it." Someone's not a happy bunny. The only down point is that you really have to listen to the song to hear the lyrics, everything else drowns the vocals out, especially during the introduction to 'We the People'.

Front to back, the album doesn't take a breather and throws out all of its energy at you until there's nothing left to throw. However, most of the songs sound similar and there aren't really many defining riffs much like the bands long lost brother, Killswitch Engage. I do applaud the band on the level of interactivity with their fans though.

3/5

'Awaken' by The Empire Shall Fall is available now on Angle Side Side.

The Empire Shall Fall on MySpace.

George Gadd