Setting the band further ahead of the pack is the soaring guitar solo that adds a touch of class, but it’s still a very safe formula for the band to be playing with. It’s a trick that is becoming a little tired, although it’s hard to ignore the fact that vocalist Ivan Moody is clearly very good at what he does. Equally the vocals are, predictably enough, throat shreddingly raw on the verse and then overtly melodic on the chorus.
‘Dying breed’ opens the album on a surging riff that is chunky and familiar to any who have caught up with Killswitch engage and their ilk. Heartily endorsed by magazines such as Metal Hammer, it is, perhaps, time for a more sober assessment of the record that everybody, apparently, is talking about. That is not to say that it is specifically bad, but when one compares it to the masterpieces released by Chthonic, Paradise Lost or Katatonia recently it’s hard to imagine listening to this in ten years time, whereas those albums have tapped into a rich vein of a timeless quality that Five Finger Death Punch rarely even aspire to, let alone succeed. From the moment ‘Dying breed’ comes crashing in on the back of a chunky riff, it’s clear that this is going to be a very contemporary sounding album.