The Fold – This Too Shall Pass

Even though we're still in the middle of a so-so summertime, there's still place for tasting the sound of the upcoming fall with America's own Chicago-based The Fold. Having been out with their first debut release "This Too Shall Pass", these guys are getting ready for some serious attention in the post-punk rock scenes in America. They're fresh and new, but that's not going to save them from a thorough review. As a band, The Fold has to show a drastic amount of originality in a genre where almost everyone sounds the same. But let's see what they have to offer with this whooping fourteen track composition.

"Let's start at the beginning of this story", well said front singer "Daniel Castady ". And with those words, the intro track "Gravity" kicks in, in all its pop-rock glamour. Voice effects, an overdose of cymbals in the track's choruses mixed with some very simple guitar and bass riffs makes the track very easy to follow. Maybe too easy, for the taste of the many experienced listeners, but the lyrics and singing performed greatly takes this track to a higher level of quality. As an icebreaker, this track perfectly lays the foundation of the whole style of the album. If you've ever heard the band Acceptance before, it would be very mysterious if these guys haven't met at sleepover and exchanged chorus recipes, since the differentials between "This Too Shall Pass" and "Phantoms" are seriously slim to none. Especially on tracks like the third track "New City" and the tenth track "Stay", a song you'd imagine any teenage emo girl crying hear heart out to. To throw some more stones at "Stay", these tracks seem to be musical mass production's wet dream as it sounds just like any other bull out there. Well, bull for experienced listeners, for newcomers, this would sound like…the same old same in a slightly, very slightly better way.

As an album, it compiles most of the emotions a pop-rock album can get around. Like Acceptance was a tad too sad and Jimmy Eat World a tad to suicidal and "no, I do not like you bad narcotics", this one can be sad, it can be serious, it can be hopeful and unsurprisingly also happy go lucky, in a way you'll just end up getting confused on whether it's passé or a new pop-rock coute dé arms, thanks to the fourth track "The Title Track". If you're a MySpace or PureVolume-go'er slash addict, you've probably heard this track a couple of times, and again it's really a quality decision weighted on something as little as a feather. It can blow to "Polished crap from Jimmy Eat World's garbage dumpster" to…"Polished gold from Jimmy Eat World's garbage dumpster". You won't make me say it's original, since it sounds undeniably like everything else, but it just sounds pretty alright in a hard to discuss the opposite manner. To make a lengthy album short, The Fold won't be the new messiahs and "This Too Shall Pass" will not be the pop-rock reproduction of God's old ten step program to become a better human being. The fourteenth track "I Believe You" may be your way of getting a career boost, but in these dark corners of the music review business you'll need to pray in a way much more creative than what you've produced so far. Repetitive use of chords and riffs, a boring, almost withdrawn drumming combined with some "fly high, fall hard" vocals just doesn't spawn any angel wings on my backs. <b> [4] </b>

<b>Download</b>: Gravity, Stay, The Title Track

<b>For the fans of</b>: Acceptance, the flops of Jimmy Eat World

<b>Listen</b> : <a href=www.myspace.com/thefold> MySpace </a>

 

Release date 02.21.2006

Tooth & Nails Records