Freeslave
Songs For The Dying LP

There’s a fair spread of style on offer on this emotive album, with an undercurrent of alternative rock that underpins splashes of Nu-Metal, Epic Pop and straight-up rock.

While I love the chunky rock tracks on this record, such as opener ‘Justice Heart’ or ‘Fire Burns Inside’, I’m very impressed by the more delicate tracks – ‘Road Less Travelled’ tugs the heart-strings with its melodic chorus and sheds rays of sunshine with warm bass tones and simplified guitars.

There are also moments of indie-rock experimentation that bring to mind the big-stage explosions of Delirious and the intricate windings of Radiohead, drawing on influences (rather than stealing) to create songs like ‘One Day Soon’.

Now I have to admit I needed to give my EQ a quick tweak* to get the best out of this one, and it deserves to be played with a fair bit of volume to get the best of the stomping tracks. But, tiny adjustments aside, this record stands up to extreme testing based on the songs, the music and the vocals with no problems at all.

Underneath all of these factors lays a solid bedrock of quality, quality lyrics that are both intensely personal and universally understandable, which completes the circle of excellence.

* Knock your 2, 4 and 8 kHz channels down a touch and turn it up!

Freeslave

Freeslave Articles

Written by Smith on 21st February 2007

Stuart 'Saur' Smith was a prolific writer for The Mag throughout the magazine's lifetime. He combined a day job of temporary office jobs in London with a nightlife of trawling the capital's music venues looking for talent. As well as writing about music, he was a session musician who featured on a number of singles in the 90s. Today, Stuart is a Chief Writer for Phonotonal.