Stars Are Falling - The Consequence of Falling

Typical, no frills hardcore/metal.

Hailing from Sacramento, CA., Stars Are Falling's latest release "The Consequence of Revenge" is a decently balanced blend of hardcore screams and guitar, mixed with elements of metal known to cross over into the genre so often nowadays. Produced by Chris Dowhan (Black Dahlia Murder, Scarlet, Spitfire), "The Consequence of Revenge" tries to balance the scale with hardcore tendencies mixed with melodic, more accessible tones.

While most of the breakdowns are your typical run-of-the-mill open chugging that is so widespread in metal and hardcore that it begins to nauseate, what helps keep the listener locked in are the well placed singing vocals amongst the tension, and some of the quiet parts that are dispersed fairly methodically throughout many of the songs. Fortunately, there's just enough of the latter to balance out the cd from being a straight open-D fest, while not being so prevalent that you want to call them the next Underoath.

The downfall of this cd, as so many others on hardcore/metal labels these days, is the propensity to throw in the all too familiar and easy open chug. To be sure, fifteen year old boys in oversized Champion sweatshirts will be throwing down in their bedroom with a hairbrush to this, but that seems to be some of what holds so many metal bands back, Stars Are Falling included. Intelligent songwriting isn't exactly what you'll find here, but it has fortunately removed itself enough from the "typical" hardcore release that you can at least listen to it without feeling lost in a sea of a hundred bands that sound exactly the same.