Across Five Aprils A Tragedy In Progress

A band name like Across Five Aprils seems to wave a big flag. When I picked up this album and saw the band name and song titles, I knew immediately what this band was going to sound like. For once, I was completely right. Across Five Aprils has a serious case of the From Autumn To Ashes disease. There are just way too many elements here, and none of them mesh that well together. There are melodic emo parts, pop-punk parts (with melodic singing), gigantic breakdowns (with throaty, screamed vocals), old-school gang vocals, and metal parts. At first maybe it would seem like there is something for everyone, but it doesn’t work that way. For example, AFA push a big breakdown right in the middle of one of their pop-punk parts and it is one of the most irritating listening experiences I have ever had. The most notable similarity Across Five Aprils have is to older Hopesfall. The mellow and melodic parts, with layered singing, are done very well, and every so often they will have a few screams in the background, which is a nice touch. However, this is the only time I can appreciate the “hardcore” screams. On this record, I would be fine with almost no screaming at all, because the melodic singing is done well, and I find it to be quite catchy. But the screaming is really weak and sounds like it is very unnatural for this guy to be using his voice this way. When these guys inject a breakdown into a song, it happens at such an awkward time that it makes me cringe. Across Five Aprils has carbon copied older Hopesfall breakdowns about fifty percent of the time. The other fifty percent of the time, they must have been listening to Bleeding Through. I can do with a few breakdowns here and there, but it is so overdone on this record, that it almost makes me mad. The metal (and I’m using the term this loosely) parts are sloppy and weak, which is another similarity to From Autumn To Ashes. I personally like the upbeat, pop-punk parts of this record. It’s not pop-punk like New Found Glory, but like a much more mature-sounding Ataris. It’s quite catchy, and, when mixed with the mellow interludes, it comes across as a great combo. The production of “A Tragedy in Progress” is quite good. Everything is represented well. At points, however, it seems that one of the guitars is buried, and weakens the heavier parts. I really like the guitar tones on the clean, mellow instrumentation. Bottom Line: I suppose this isn’t a terrible album, but I sure can’t handle it. Maybe fans of From Autumn To Ashes, Hopesfall, or even Atreyu would really get into “A Tragedy in Progress.” It sounds like everyone in Across Five Aprils is talented at their respective instruments, so I hope they can come into more of their own sound, for the next album.