by PATRICK ROBERTSON Section Editor
Christian metalcore band Fit For A King, out of Dallas, Texas, just debuted their third studio album “Slave to Nothing”. In my opinion, “Slave to Nothing” was a huge disappointment.
Their last album, “Creation/Destruction” was the band’s best album in the opinion of many fans and left them hungry for more. The album reached number three in the billboard hard music charts, number 13 in the rock album charts, number 29 on the digital album charts, and number 49 on the hot 200 charts.
“Creation/Destruction” was highly regarded by all fans of the bands, with songs like “Warpath”, which is a glimpse of what the album had – tight drumming, heavy riffage with plenty of breakdowns, and vastly improved vocals.
“Slave to Nothing” was produced by the guitarist of Fit For An Autopsy, a deathcore band, so this album was expected to be heavier than usual. It was actually the exact opposite.
The album opens with “Kill The Pain”. At first listen, I was immediately nervous. There is a very ominous sound to it, with echoing vocals over the intro, but when everyone came in, it did not have the normal Fit For a King sound that fans like myself are used to.
This song is repetitive. The riff used in the intro is repeated throughout the song and, to my surprise, there was only one breakdown in the whole song. FFAK are known for jaw-dropping, earth-shattering breakdowns.
You may be asking, what is a breakdown? A breakdown is a rhythmic section of the music where the band will repeat a similar pattern over and over again, and the heaviness will vary depending on the genre of the band. Hardcore music generally tends to be less heavy and quicker while metalcore tends to be heavier and slower.
In the song “Young and Undeserving”, I had goosebumps from head to toe when vocalist Ryan Kirby asks God, “Why won’t you answer me?” The song is about someone who passed away at a young age and Kirby is asking God, “Why did you take him away?” and “Is he in heaven?” This is my favorite song on the album, and one of the few redeeming songs.
The next song is “Slave to Nothing” featuring Matty Montgomery of the band For Today. This is my second favorite song on the album. It features no clean vocals at all, and is supposed to be their heaviest song. While it is the heaviest song on the album, it is not what fans expected it to be. Once again, the guitar riffs are very repetitive.
Another thing about this album is the bass is quieter than usual. The bass was very prominent on “Creation/Destruction”, but in this album, it is barely even noticeable.
The fourth song, “Break Away”, had very nice clean vocals to follow up the all screaming in “Slave to Nothing”, but everything else was very forgettable.
For the rest of the album, it pains me to say it is all boring and not memorable. The songs repeat guitar riffs over and over, contain no memorable breakdowns, and the vocals are just boring. Nothing makes me want to go back and listen again.
So listen to the album and tell us what you think. Do you like the album? What is the best song?