For The Fallen Dreams – Six

For The Fallen Dreams released their sixth album titled ‘Six’ this year.  It’s their first album since 2014 and is the second one since their original vocalist Chad Ruhlig returned to the line up.  FTFD has been around for a long time and consistently puts out solid music but they’ve never received much recognition outside of their core supporters.  Surprisingly I’ve only seen FTFD once, back in like 2011 and I think it’s because they’ve been lying low and haven’t been on any major tours lately.

Despite FTFD not being a massive band, Chad Ruhlig commands a lot of respect as a vocalist.  It’s almost like low screams are actually mids for him because he uses them a majority of the time.  It was exactly the same when he made a side project band called LGND which also signed to Rise and released an album in 2015.  I still don’t fully understand why he made a side project band that was basically FTFD 2.0 but I won’t complain about him putting out more great music. 

‘Six’ is cool because after Chad’s 12 years of being a vocalist he finally decided to experiment with a little more range.  I actually didn’t think it was him the first time I listened to “Unstoppable” because those yells are so uncharacteristic for him.  I’m always a fan of vocal variation and he pulls it off pretty well, especially because he still has plenty of lows.  I’ve heard people complain previous FTFD albums are too monotonous because the vocals are all in a similar range which can make it hard to tell the songs apart, but that certainly doesn’t happen on here.  It also helps that the cleans are pretty dynamic and the choruses change things up enough to keep each song fresh.

One reason I’m enjoying ‘Six’ is because it reminds me a bit of their first album ‘Changes’.  It’s hard not to love the heavy hitting pattern of Chad’s lows mixed with the guitar tone.  It’s great when bands revisit their old sound and update it with what they’ve grown into and “Two Graves” is one of the best examples of that here.

As FTFD continues making music I hope they begin experimenting with mixing the vocals up even more.  “Ten Years” has a little bit of what I’m talking about, and I get that it’s probably tough since Chad just started doing the yells, but if he switches between them and creates a back and forth type of effect it would be lots of fun for the listener. 

I think I’ve finally accepted that FTFD will never blow up and that people who weren’t there for ‘Changes’ cannot connect with them the way that I did.  Nevertheless, I hope they continue to improve their craft and put out quality music because I truly believe they’re a band that people will appreciate more once they’re gone.