Album Review: Chasing Victory – Fiends
I first heard Chasing Victory’s music on Last.fm radio a couple of weeks ago, and they were good enough that I decided to get this album. Since then, I’ve been listening to it almost non-stop Before I jump right into it, a little about the band: Chasing Victory is a 5-piece hardcore rock band hailing from Georgia. They came together just a couple years ago and have since released three albums (“Fiends” is their third). I’ve only heard a couple of tracks off of their second release, “I Call This Abandonment” but what I’ve heard also sounds pretty good.
I really like the singing on the album. Adam Harrell (the singer) does a good job of mixing up the melodic singing with high-intensity screaming, without going overboard on the screaming like a lot of other bands do. His singing has a really unique sound that seems to fit perfectly with the instrumental parts and the style of each song. I’ve always been a fan of pretty high-pitched vocal parts (i.e Circa Survive and others) and I really liked Adam’s vocal range. What’s more, backup vocals are use sparingly, but they do a great job of accenting the lead line in songs like “Wolves” and “Fiends”. The combination of brutal screaming and softer melodic vocals adds dynamic contrast to each song and makes the album a lot more interesting.
Lyrically, the song’s are all about combatting one’s sin’s, but the lyrics never seem to get cheesy. Chasing Victory uses a lot of metaphors, so it’s pretty hard to tell what sins they’re addressing in each song. They do a good job of keeping things abstract, with subtle hints of the “sins” theme scattered here and there. One critique I have here is that repitition is a bit overused. Many of the songs have simple chorus’s that just repeat one or two lines (“Chemicals”, “Janus”). Overall, though, I think the lyrics are fairly good except for the repetition.
The guitar work isn’t too technical, but at the same time it creates a unique style for each song that’s complemented by the vocal line. Like the vocals, the guitars add to the swells throughout the album by varying heavy breakdowns with some softer melodic lines. The two guitarists also do a great job dynamically, playing softly to put emphasis on the vocals but playing louder during instrumental parts and choruses. There are a couple of purely instrumental sections, but I wouldn’t classify anything as a guitar solo, which is a bit disappointing to me. Some of the bridges and breakdowns are really good though. All in all, the guitar parts are simple, but very tactfully played so that they contribute positively to each song.
I’ve never been very good at reviewing drum parts (probably because I don’t really know anthing about drumming), but the drum parts in “Fiends” seem to be pretty standard. They do swell with the rest of the parts and provide foundation for each song, but other than that, they don’t ever stand out much nor are they exceptionally different from other bands. A lot of the drum riffs are pretty generic riffs that I’ve heard on so many other albums, but at the same time, they go well with the rest of the song. Drumming may be the weakness on this album, but it certainly isn’t bad; it’s just not exceptionally noticeable.
Overall, the most impressive thing on “Fiends” is how all the parts build on each other and really meld together well. The tracks also flow together well without fillers and other garbage. Every track is good, but they’re all different so the album doesn’t wear itself out in a single listen. If you enjoy rock/hardcore music, you should definitely check this album out.
My rating: 8/10
Recommended Tracks: “Wolves”, “Fiends”, “Carnies”, “Zombies”
Tags: album reviews, Chasing Victory, music