If Not For Me — Where The Light Begins To Fade Album Review
- Phantom Light Media
- 41 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Pennsylvania metal-core outfit If Not For Me have been on a real hot streak of activity lately - multiple festival slots across
the country, a sweet stint on the recently-wrapped Hounds of the Underground tour, and now a brand new album. Released on August 14th of this year, “Where the Light Begins to Fad
e” is their third full-length fol
lowing 2022’s “Eulogy” and 2024’s “Everything You Wanted.” The art direction for the album immediately caught my eye, with the stained-glass windows on the cover providing a sense that they were going for a big, open,
and grandiose sound on this record - and on that front, they absolutely deliver. Opening track “Retrograde” comes blasting out of the gate in a manner that immediately reminds me of “Nihilist”, one of the best tracks that Architects have ever released. The follow-up from “Lie Awake” brings the pace down a hair and includes a beautiful vocal feature from Wind Walkers’ Trevor Borg, before returning to chuggier terrains on “Unholy” and “Say It To My Face.” The latter track features Taylor Barber of Left to Suffer, but his voice seems oddly hard to spot amid the ambient effects during the breakdown, which did bring down the overall energy of the tune somewhat. In its middle section, the album focuses on a more melodic side of the band’s sound with tunes like “Broken Throne,” “Teeth,” and “Prey for Me.” Guitarist Hayden Calhoun really gets to shine here as his riffs take the lead instrumental role across these tracks and really makes each of them stand out. The structure of all three is a bit similar, but enjoyable overall. There’s an overarching sense of bleak acceptance of life’s many tribulations across the whole thing that really comes through strongest in “Novocaine,” the much-touted track where the strongest clean vocals of the whole record can be found. Patrick Glover trades passages with Catch Your Breath’s Josh Mowery over a beautifully layered guitar and synth pairing reminiscent of That’s the Spirit-era Bring Me The Horizon that really shows off the soaring heights each of them can get to. Then the album races to a big thunderous close through “Love to Hate Me,” “Pretty Lies,” and “Close to Closure”. It does stumble slightly near the end with penultimate track “Save Me,” another soaring ballad that interrupts the more intense stylings of the others around it and might have benefited from being placed slightly earlier - but as a whole, the landing is stuck well.
I came away having quite enjoyed the album, particularly the production choices made on some of the earlier songs. The audio mix pushes the drums fully to the front and that’s something I seriously appreciate, as Cody Frain’s work on this album is probably the best I’ve heard from him yet. I’m more familiar with their earlier work that leaned into their pop stylings a bit more, but I would love to see If Not For Me push their sonic boundaries heavier in future releases. Glover’s harsh vocals and screams have serious power to them, as demonstrated in the excellent final breakdown to “Teeth” that’s probably my favorite singular moment on the whole record. And while I’m usually not the biggest fan of lyricism that leans heavily on religious imagery, I think it was handled nicely on this record to the point it didn’t feel excessive, remaining relevant to Glover’s desired storytelling without getting too deep into the metaphors being drawn upon. Overall, this is a seriously solid metalcore record that I can see propelling If Not For Me further into the heavier side of their sound while not losing touch with their sense of melody. You can catch the band on tour with Wind Walkers and True North starting this coming September.
Favorite tracks: Retrograde, Teeth, Close to Closure
For fans of: Architects (For Those Who Wish to Exist), Bring Me The Horizon (That’s the Spirit), Bad Omens (The Death of Peace of Mind)
Review By: Ryan S.
Comments