REVIEW: For All Those Sleeping – Outspoken

July 16th, 2012

Kriston McConnell

Artist: For All Those Sleeping
Album: Outspoken
Genre: Hardcore
Label: Fearless Records

For All Those Sleeping, where have these guys been? It feels like they released Cross Your Fingers and then sort of dropped off the face of the earth. Grant it, I was never very diligent about checking up on them but being elbow deep in news on all sorts of bands in this genre I expected to hear something, anything about them. I set Cross Your Fingers aside as one of those fad albums, something that would be the band’s greatest success then they would just fade away like many other bands in this genre.

I might have been wrong.

The band was featured on Punk Goes Pop 4 covering “You Belong With Me”, and since then I felt like the band sort of came back to life. (Maybe they did beforehand? I only checked up on them a few times over the last year or so and they were still plugging their debut.) When I first heard they were working on some new music, I was hopeful, and just a little skeptical since I was never really a huge fan of their debut album. When their first single “Mark My Words” came out though, that changed. I first heard the track and immediately thought, “Is this the same band? Did they sound like this before and I just missed it??” I listened to Cross Your Fingers soon after, the answer is no.

There are quite a few notable tracks on the album, for example, the first three. “Outspoken”, which is a short & to the point intro; it sets the tone for the whole CD. “Once A Liar [Always A Fake]”, which is also a single released from the record. The track might not have very original lyrics, but it’s full of passion and is put together well. “Mark My Words” is my favorite track, sometimes it’s nice to just listen to something that is just a little bit vengeful and angry. I am also a sucker for deep growling vocals.

A few other tracks that stand out from the others to me are “Turn Of The Century”, “Life On Fire”, and “Never Trust A Dead Man”. One of the reasons I like “Turn Of The Century” is because it starts off differently from all of the other tracks on the record. It manages to stay different as well, which is always a plus. Regarding “Life On Fire”, I know the album is titled Outspoken and the very first track is “Outspoken”, but I really do feel like that THIS track speaks for the album. Now, each of the tracks represent a theme of the record, but this is the song you should listen to if you want to know what this CD is all about. In a few of the tracks, he does this really high scream like the beginning of “Never Trust a Dead Man”. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I will say that I like how high he gets and then how low he can get. It’s nice to hear a song like this and to have some variation instead of the same unclean vocals throughout the entire album, which is obviously not an issue at all for them.

All in all, this is a great piece of work and I would be more than happy to sit and listen to this record at least a few more times. However, I would like to see a little bit more range with the clean vocals in the future, and maybe some more complexity in the makeup of each track. I just feel like there is a little bit of something missing, and while I enjoy the album it’s not necessarily unique compared to other post hardcore records. They stayed a little safe this time around, but hopefully next time they will push their boundaries and explore avenues that will test their abilities.

For anyone who ever listened to Cross You Fingers, it’s easy to tell how much the band has progressed in the time they’ve taken to craft this new album. Something changed, and it’s obvious in the music they made this time. I think if the band continues in the direction they’re going then they have the opportunity to come out with a great album. We will have to see where they go now, and hope they manage to keep their momentum moving forward while they can.

Score: 8/10
Review written by Kriston McConnell