Reviews

This band from London has had some success across the Atlantic on their home island and Trustkill just recently signed on to distribute their music here in the US and Canada.  The CD was originally released about this time last year in the UK.  Fightstar has a solid foundation of metal inspired post-hardcore, their melodies often dictating their song structure.  They also sound a lot like more popular English import, Funeral for a Friend; the same epic melodies and metal guitar playing is present on this album, which of course is solidified by the singing.  Fightstar has more of a metal presence in their music than their fellow Englishmen; almost all of the songs have the typical chugging breakdowns.  Actually, at the end of the song “Here Again (Last Conversation),” the breakdown sounds like a faster version of  Funeral for A Friend’s “Rookie of the Year” breakdown.  The band, like I said earlier, is still more focused on melody and singing than straight breakdowns and screaming; the disc has very little screaming and sticks mostly with the melodic approach, even during some breakdowns.  Though the music sounds very similar to Funeral for a Friend, the singers of the two bands are quite different with Fightstar’s lead vocalist sounding more like Beloved’s Josh Moore.
 
Though the guys have many similarities to FFAF and Beloved, their debut CD comes up short.  There are some good songs and an obvious amount of talent but there is absolutely no originality.  I began listening to this CD with a good attention span, as there was some potential within the first song, “Grand Unification, Pt. 1.”  As I continued, I noticed that there wasn’t much variance in the songs and I had a hard time not letting my mind wander.  The first song that really had any change to it is “Open Your Eyes,” which is an acoustic ballad.  The best songs on the album are “Grand Unification, Pt. 1,” “Build an Army,” and “Wake Up.”  What this album is missing are two of the most important things a solid release needs; song variance and a specific, original aspect of the band.  With Grand Unification clocking in at around fifty minutes, it seems dragged out and really could have been better as an EP…and the whole album lacked a lot of screaming; there was some, but it always seemed to arrive at the wrong times in each song.