Fightstar - One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours (Review: Roshan)

I never thought I’d ever end up listening to something “Busted” related and liking it. Busted was a manufactured band whose sole purpose was to create generic, Fan-girl crazy, crap, awful songs that should never be taken seriously by anyone over the age of 10. From this horrific concoction came another equally cringe band, McFly. Even though Fightstar was formed before Busted, the fact that at least one band member didn’t think creating shit music and making a tonne of money out of 12 year-old girls was a shameful, soul degrading-surely-to-be-sent-to-some-hellish-place-when-he-dies thing to do, it makes me feel a sort of…hate for the band before even listening to it.

Thankfully, post-hardcore is pretty far away from all that pop stuff. So the distance between the two bands is large enough for me to consider giving it a chance. First off, production is very good and pretty clear and it’s good to know all the money Charlie made didn’t go completely to waste. However I feel there is something astray when it comes to the guitar, it sounds overblown and a bit bloated.

The sound of the album is pretty consistent throughout, post-hardcore and it sticks to its guns. Piano sequences make appearances throughout. Particularly in “Floods” which has the undeniable smell of “Muse” about its intro. The first few tracks did annoy me slightly in that they almost strained themselves to sound catchy, this is entirely down to Charlie’s singing, which I hate to say, is very good. It ranges from a “Matt Bellamy” winey teenager to aggressive hardcore shouts as heard in “Deathcar”. The latter tracks I felt had a more natural flow to them, as they didn’t have the pressure to be decent selling singles.

One of the most prominent thoughts in my mind was how much this sounds like other bands, a lot of the sound is borrowed from bands such as “Deftones”, “Rage Against the Machine” and the riff near the end of “Amaze Us” is very similar to “Machine Head’s” “Old”. It’s rife with influence and I’m not sure whether it’s a bad thing or not. My highlight has to be “Tannhäuser Gate” in some ways it doesn’t sound like it belongs on the album purely because it stands on its own without any obvious influence from another band.

The album doesn’t standout too much and there are no little details for me to relish in, whilst not lazy in its execution it is still a little unloved. Its Obvious this is a voice and heavy-handed guitar driven album and however borrowed this album sounds it’s still a solid album that I would recommend to any post-hardcore or even rock fans.

My Highlights: Flood / Deathcar / Tannhäuser Gate

Score: 3/5