Farmer's BLVD - red carpet

 

Farmers Blvd. release their 3rd full length already with this release. Coming along in a digipacked CD, the optical impression is already good, with a comic-like coverart and a slick booklet. Musically, we got basic old school hardcore from this German band. Ranging between mostly quite fast and mid tempo parts, FB present a mixture of NY HC of the later 80ies and 90ies and seldom modern influences that you could describe as new school, but mostly are just breakdowns. Leaving metal aside, the old school side of their sound is too generic to convince me enough. Sometimes some energy is delivered, but mostly their sound seems a bit weak on the chest, lacking some diversity and ideas – playing old school does not necessarely mean not to move forward. The voice is high pitched and varies between being too thin and delivering some good screams here and there. To me, especially the songs where they dare something more are interesting, such „human robots“ with a few nice ideas such as a choir and some diversity in songstructures and guitarsound. The following „6th sense“ follows this path quite well, but at the same time, this songs shows their weakness a bit more: The fast old school part at the beginning is just too weak to kick ass. „the statement“ has a similar problem, Throughout the record, you can find more nice ideas and surprises that they should include even more, as the too usual old school parts lack of energy. The production is a bit flat, misses some kick in the head, especially the combination of guitars and vocals lack some energy some time. So, a bit light has to compete with some dark, seeing some potential in this 9-year old band, but not being convinced of their present work.

Label: PCS / Vinyl Junkies / SM Music

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