Album Review: As We Suffer - The Fallen Pillars
Reviewed by Liam True
Taking influences from modern metal As We Suffer have brought out an album that’s the bastard son of Killswitch Engage and Trivium. The Fallen Pillars is an album that had it been released in, say, 2013 it would have been met with tremendous reception. But being released in 2023 I think it needs more praise as it’s bringing back that short-lived era of aggressive metalcore and heavy production.
The entire album is a blaze of fury full of huge riffs, glorious singalongs and more punk moments than you could find in a Towers Of London album. The album is also a concept album which we don’t really see of much lately but As We Suffer do a brilliant job of working their narrative into their songwriting. And with the album concept revolving around the pillars of truth, each song also deals with its own destructive concepts that, as a society, we shouldn’t use as pedestals for truths. While mainly being a blend of metalcore & hardcore it does pull from other genres. Open Letter (To The Bleeding Hearts) has more of a venomous punk background as frontman Matthew Caldwell spits his harsh and clean mixed vocals over the fire-laden riffs from Derik Roblin and Rob Bell on guitars.
Fucking Relentless is again akin to more hardcore punk but still retains that metalcore feel with drummer Tim Johnson like a precision laser on the kit. Invade The Host features Caldwell’s furious high screams and low clean ranges as he rages over the band as they hammer their way into your brain.
I’m not going to go into detail on every song on the album, but the eleven track and 38-minute run time just flies by as the whole time it’s a massive throwback to the mid-2000's where this style of metalcore was the real deal and spawned many copycats. While As We Suffer do tread close to sounding like a covers band, more vocally that anything else, they’ve taken the genre, turned it around and kicked it up the ass to inject it with more venom and fury than before. And just as an ending note, High Tide is the best song on the album. Spin it until you’re sick of it.
