For All Those Sleeping – Outspoken

Published by PecksMetalPicks on July 14, 2018

For All Those Sleeping broke up in 2014 but not before putting out three albums, the best of which was ‘Outspoken’. It came out in 2012 and is a great representation of metalcore from that time period. I mean, it starts with an intro song that literally only exists to use the callout “step up or shut the fuck up” which is followed by a solid electronic section because why not. Look, I’m not gonna lie, this album is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.

Despite this band being the embodiment of all the trends that people came to hate after a couple years, For All Those Sleeping pulled it off a lot better than most bands. I think it’s mostly due to the fact that the vocals wander into surprisingly heavy territory and even explore quite a bit of high screams.

When you get to a song like Mark My Words and it opens with “You’re fucked now” you know you’re listening to something from at least 5 years ago. The fact that they repeat it at the end of the song as the main breakdown hits is exactly the kind of formula bands were using back then. A lot of the breakdowns end up sounding similar but they still hit hard and got the crowd jumping at shows.

The cleans on this album are a little high pitch, but the way they’re placed make the choruses ten times catchier. There’s something to be said about properly balancing your heavy screams with lighter sections to give each song a foundation to build around. The choruses were a home base that let them experiment with some cool heavy stuff while providing a safe place to retreat to before the next heavy section.

Turn of The Century is a great summary of their sound. It starts with talking to build up the breakdown, transitions into mid screams, goes into highs, and then resets as the breakdown hits so the vocalist can get into his lows. All the while you have an electronic backtrack playing to give the breakdown a little of that 2012 flare.

Obviously all my throwback reviews are biased by some degree of nostalgia, but this style of straightforward breakdowns, callouts, and edgy lyrics has been out of the spotlight for a while and could make a comeback. It reminds me a lot of why I got into this music.