Farewell to Arms
Perceptions

Lately I have wondered if it is a trend today with the metalcore kind of music with the hardcore meets the melodic death metal, it seems as though I have reviewed millions of those bands to date and the more I hear the more they seem to blend together into one grey mess. I think that you may have guessed that German quintet Farewell to Arms falls into that kind of category of music, but just maybe it is a matter of perceptions, at least that is what I was hoping for when starting to play this album the very first time.

After that first time literally just seconds after I had played the album I could not even recollect the genre it belonged to, and the same was true after the second and third time I played it as well, I just tuned out when listening to the album and it wasn’t until I had played the album a fourth time that I at least had a style and genre in my head for it. Metalcore meets melodic death metal or something like that, screamy vocals with cleanly sung catchy choruses and the in typical voices of the genre even. The production is the modern polished one that we usually hear in the genre as well and in no regard does this band alter from the path set down by around 1256774 bands before them. Nothing that Farewell to Arms does is unique or different from what has been done in the genre before and for a newcomer in this genre they are just too late to be taken seriously on style alone, something special is needed in the quality department, they need brilliant songs.

They have ten songs, none of which is brilliant. They have ten good songs, I should clarify so that you know at least that. But being good in a crowded genre is like being second in russian roulette, it is not that brilliant. The fact is that these songs could have been done by any band in the genre and despite them having some nice catchy melodies in there the album remains completely indifferent in my mind despite me reaching a dozen plays now, I just got bored and change album to one that sounds remarkably alike but you’ll find out more about that later.

I think that you do not have to be unique to be good but you cannot be predictable and that is exactly what this album is, predictable. It is like I am to write an amusing parallel that shows just how predictable this album is, now you know. It is as unpredictable as a movie by Michael Bay, or a regular workday for most people, I would say that there is no surprises on this album and if there is anything that turns me off it is predictability. I am sorry Farewell to Arms but your debut album is kind of pointless.

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