Melbourne metalcore quintet FEED HER TO THE SHARKS have released two full-length albums and after following their signing to Victory Records, their third album “Fortitude” is announce with a release on February 15. The record sounds polished, thanks to stellar production from scene overlord Fredrik Nordström (Bring Me The Horizon, IKTPQ, Architects).
Having acquired astonishing reviews across the internet for their powerful live performance FHTTS have made a name for themselves by heavily touring Australia as well as Warped Tour. The “World is Yours” opens the album and right from minute one, seals a likewise studio performance, leading you to believe that there is not enough room for bashing one of the best metalcore bands currently out of the continent. Lurking from astonishing fast, powerful melodies to downtempo ground-breaking rythms the song magnetizes the listener effortlessly and gives high hopes for what’s to come.
The next track in the lineup is “Chasing Glory”, which is the second song on the album and the first music video, and it is quite obvious to see why. Imminent synths and sharp guitar riffs are complimented by Andrew Van Der Zalm hateful vocal lines. Unfortunately, clean vocals make their appearance for a chorus that provides no identity but mediocre similarity to thousands other acts in the scene. It’s not for the clean vocals themselves as this is prevailing in almost every track here, but composing a few more alternative and catchy melodic passes would be no harm. On the contrary, they would have worked miracles and could have set themselves against a formulaic approach when it comes to writing down music.
Getting deeper into the album, the majority of the rest of the tracks fail to land as hard, with “Shadow of Myself” and closer “Let Go” – a mechanical track with very strong beats yet in parts sounds a lot different and chaotic – coming closest to matching the quality of the opener, despite the best and most impassioned of intentions from the band.
With “Fortitude”, FHTTS succeed in staying relevant, but not in staying fresh and however good a musical progression to their previous albums it might be, it falls short in numerous parts and bearly escapes the threat of being forgotten. In such saturated musical scene, they have chosen to stay safe in repetition although a potential to differentiate and risk still lurks quietly in the band’s veins.
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