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A Life Once Lost > Open Your Mouth for the Speechless...in Case of Those Appointed to Die > Reviews
A Life Once Lost - Open Your Mouth for the Speechless...in Case of Those Appointed to Die

Pointless and eminently forgettable - 22%

Noktorn, November 10th, 2008

The very existence of albums like this continues to amaze me. This is one of those turn-of-the-millennium metal albums that operates in a murky area between post-hardcore, metalcore, melodic death metal, and random technical noodling, and the combination is about as awkward and unpleasant as it sounds. It really begs the question: did anyone like this even when it was popular? Were there kids who listened to this album and genuinely found it to be 'the shit'? It's really bad by any standard; perhaps I'm missing something and having parts of songs not relate to each other in any logical way is in some circles desirable, but to me it makes for pointless songs, and moreover, a pointless album. I can't see anyone actually liking this.

Despite the fact that nothing actually unique happens in this album, it's still impossible to predict where the songs are going because their direction is so irrelevant and meaningless. There's a handful of main ideas employed on this album: melodeath riffing, metalcore chugging, and sudden bursts of technicality via unusual time signatures or just shredding, but none of these individually or in conjunction with each other manage to go anywhere of significance. Like so many other bands, A Life Once Lost suffers from a serious case of Opeth syndrome, with an almost pathological inability to write interesting, coherent songs. Each one is a droning processions of mediocre riffs half-remembered from other, better metalcore and melodeath bands and spastic technicality that adds only the illusion of depth. Abandoning musicality and logical structuring is only good when the band doing it has a great deal of raw talent to draw inspiration from, but in this case it's just an incoherent mash of stale, overused ideas. What's there to enjoy about this? Screamed vocals? Boring riffs? Technical but otherwise uninspired drumming? No thanks.

Only the most impossibly die-hard tech/metalcore fans need to hear this, everyone can pass without even a look over the shoulder.