F5 - The Reckoning
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 2:36 pm by admin
I’ve been pretty blown away this past year by a lot of old-timers making huge comebacks, taking new creative strides, and putting forth some youthful energy. When former Megadeth bass player Dave Ellefson comes out with a second album from his band F5, I was curious, and had high hopes.
High hopes which were completely dashed unfortunately, as it sounds like some veteran power metal players who’re trying to break into some radio friendly areas while at the same time attempting to break out of their own bad habits. The vocals have a grittiness in the singing tone, with the chosen styles ranging from radio ex-punk (similar to Three Days Grace), radio nu-rock (a hell of a lot like Disturbed), and often switching back to a more power metal style when the singer stops trying to go the mainstream. The music is equally as cobbled up, moving from standard power metal cliches all the way over to the drop-hopping and single-note strangling from nu-metal. It’s kind of weird to hear the band from one minute play a dumbed-down simplistic lock-step pattern, then instantly switch over to thrashing riffs supporting a shred-em-up guitar solo. Unfortunately no matter where you go on “The Reckoning”, you’ve heard everything somewhere, somehow before, only this time you get disparate styles that wildly clash thrown together in a match truly made in hell.
Released August 19th 2008
F5 at MySpace
Koch Records at MySpace
Buy this album at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
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