Review: Fell Far Behind - Reaching the Red Line

Label: self-released

Released: September 18, 2007

There are bands that do most things right, but the few things they lack make all the difference between being good and lousy. Fell Far Behind is just such a band. They have many of the pieces in place: They're tight, they understand hooks, they're polished and the production on Reaching the Red Line is very good for a self-released album. However, they forgot to add emotion and they forgot to have original ideas. They play emo by the book and their only innovation (if you can call it that) is to bring the big guitar riffs of the 80s forward to the 00s. Like the melodic hard rock bands that influenced their approach, they too want to draw some of the energy from the edgier music of their time, water it down and pretty it up. While some songs do kick off with a burst of excitement, that feeling is short lived. They all quickly degenerate into dull repetition, sounding not just like every other song on the album, but every generic emo song on the planet. Mixing it up with a few ballads doesn't help them any more than it did their lackluster 80s forebears.

Fell Far Behind may well make it to the big time, but it will be for all the wrong reasons. They are easy and palatable, but never challenging, never even approaching the "red line" the title suggests. In a certain sense, they are good, but good at the things that can be learned, not the intangibles. Their music is carefully constructed, but only in an effort to mimic the vision of others. It's as if their heads are in the right place, but not their hearts.

Rating: 3/10

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