(Updated at 9:15 AM) It's now time for our 165th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, as we're taking a look at newer local pop punk solo project
Forever Will Be's debut album "Dead And Dishonest"! Released to major streaming services on November 17th of last year, this is the home project for former
As It Stands/For July guitarist Ryan McLaughlin's independent studio/label
Relentless Audio, who previously worked on original material for other acts as well as Forever Will Be's original guise as Great West Falls. "Dead And Dishonest" was recorded over the preceding year, and while Ryan is the only credited band member, vocals were provided on a session basis by Billy Douglas of the British pop punk band
Colosseums. You can stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora (US only), or Deezer, all handily linked
on Hearnow. If you actually want to buy the album and own the mp3 files therein, the album runs for $7.92 on iTunes, so consider that option to support Ryan's work as well!
With eight songs running for around 27 minutes in length, let's begin this review with its first song, "Former Self"! Opening with an extended drum intro, the rest of the instrumentation and Billy's vocals come in slowly with intent, building to a screamed half-verse and melodic choruses. He has the pop punk/screamo balance down nicely, but the music definitely takes a back seat to the vocals, more keeping time with the lyrics than standing on their own. Still a good opener for pop punk fans, and with good lyrics to boot! Next is the album's longest song, "Afflicted", which opens with a solid guitar riff but it stops dead in its tracks for the verses, though not in a bad way, setting the tone for the lyrics well. This actually builds up the vocals better for me, and they work in concert with the music better!
Billy lets loose with the screaming on the choruses to strong effect, and if he did all of the vocals in one take, then he switches from screaming to clean singing seamlessly! The fade-out at the end feels like it came out of nowhere, but an improved and more prominent instrumental section and some passioned vocals put things on an upward trajectory already! Third up is
"Shadow Of Myself", which makes use of a good spacey guitar riff before the full song kicks in, and it is the heaviest and fastest song yet, so screamo and post-hardcore fans will definitely be drawn to this one! No reinventing the wheel here, but the up-tempo energy and enthusiasm is sure fitting on this track, and Billy's varied vocals fit the mood whether screaming or singing, so this album definitely continues improving track by track! Fourth on the album is
"Antihero", which is not nearly as aggressive as the preceding but has another catchy intro going for it.
Interestingly, he seems to skip an initial chorus, but it still structurally works for pop punk fans, and the bass pokes through the best on this song of the ones so far! I will say that some of Billy's harsher vocals sound a little forced compared to earlier songs, and the opening guitar riff should have repeated itself more than it did, so the song is a dip in quality for my tastes but certainly still worth hearing. The second half leads off with the album's shortest track, namely "Conversations In The Dark", which is a 2+ minute instrumental piece. Until the last 35 seconds, we just get spare guitar work with muffled background dialogue (the title conversations, no doubt) before the full band kicks in for a heavier-leaning punk attack. For me, it's a shame that the closing stretch wasn't longer, as I honestly wasn't feeling this song until then, but I understand that it was probably intended to break things up on the album.
We're back to traditional songs from Forever Will Be next, with
"Nosedive", which honestly reminds me a bit of early Fall Out Boy aside from the screamed vocal parts (which are less prevalent here than on the first half). Admittedly, I don't like Fall Out Boy, but emo punk fans will like the comparison of styles here! The higher vocals and more vibrant playing help this song stand out, and it is well performed, but for my genre preferences, I do prefer the album's first four songs for aggression and guitar work. The penultimate song is
"Drown", which does return to the style of the first half of the album with more screaming, more of a punk edge, and more of a freewheeling attack that accentuates the solid guitar work. The big addition is actually voicemail from an unidentified woman during the bridge, which makes more sense in context. Definitely a return to form for "Dead & Dishonest" overall, and not a moment too soon!
The album closes with "Downsides", which you may also know from its later acoustic version (Forever Will Be's newest release at press time). This is a more melodic song on average with limited screaming, but unlike "Nosedive", this isn't as Fall Out Boy-esque. At the same time, the vocals are (on average) sung safer and without as much energy and changes in tempo or pitch. Not a bad closer to the album that is well within the ballpark for subgenre fans, but also not as lively and intense as earlier songs, but listen for yourself to see what you think!
So, what are my final thoughts on Forever Will Be's debut album? It's inconsistent for what I go for in punk rock, but fans of pop punk, emo, and/or screamo will find a lot to like here! Ryan shows clear multi-instrumental talent, while Billy uses his voice in lots of different ways to get across the sounds and styles on offer, and if I had to compare the songs here to a known band from the mid-2000s glory days of emo-leaning pop punk, I'd say The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus would be a reasonable choice. The production quality helped this album stand out despite its independent trappings, and you can tell that this comes from a place of love for these subgenres (if Ryan had put this out twenty years ago, it'd have been
huge locally). "Afflicted", "Shadow of Myself", and "Drown" were my favourite songs based on the aggression and guitar riffs in particular, but there are things to address.
"Conversations In The Dark" was filler until it wasn't, "Nosedive" (despite being the single with music video) was a little too emo compared to what I like, and I do think the album started and ended on songs that were a little too direct and vocal driven despite not having the peaks & valleys of other songs in the vocal department. Still, for a first solo effort, Ryan (and Billy) impressed with Forever Will Be's debut, and if you like early-mid 2000s screamo and pop punk, do check this out for yourself above! I hope you guys liked this month's CD review, and look for our review of Mike McCleary's new solo EP "Fallout From Midnight Tides" on the site next month, and for more news and notes this week! Thanks everyone!
