Reviews

When From Autumn To Ashes came out with “The Fiction We Live,” old fans said they had gone soft while new fans welcomed their trip into roadtrip sing-a-long land with open arms. Every music forum, chat room and blog featured the infamous debate over whether FATA was still “good” or not. So in response to that episode, the band has released “Abandon Your Friends,” which combines the mosh friendly elements of their older material with the melodic vocal stylings of “The Fiction We Live.”
 
The differences between tracks are drastic and felt like a punch to the gut. In “Inapprope,” singer Benjamin Perri croons his heart out with lyrics like “I’ve reached the top of the ladder but what I did, it didn’t matter. It’s on the wrong wall.” Immediately following is “Sugar Wolf,” which proves that there is still beauty in the breakdown. This track explores the music industry and how it compares to the morale of the band as shown in the lyrics “When did music turn into a beauty pageant? Lately my sense of pride has been chronically absent,” and “I’ve become a participant in something I once stood against.” That’s something that would be interesting to explore in an interview. “Streamline” is the slow tempo ballad of the album, bringing out the alternative rock that Perri keeps hiding in the closet.  This is probably my favorite song on the album because it doesn’t fit in with anything else; it’s just sort of there.
 
Painfully absent are the guest vocals of Melanie Wills, who was previously featured in the songs, “Short Stories With Tragic Endings,” as well as the title track to the last album, “The Fiction We Live.” But this release is done well. Not perfect, just well. It has a decent blend of hardcore and melodi-core, just as any FATA album might be expected to deliver. Montag Press said this album is swamped in “Vagina coated melody,” and so I think I’ll leave you all with that. If you like their last album, you’ll like this.