Transcend the Fallen had sent in their album “Between Perception and Regret” for submission to RMR earlier this month. With a name like Transcend the Fallen, I was expecting to hear some sort of metal/deathcore oriented album. What had come through the speakers was the exact opposite of my expecations.
Transcend the Fallen is a band that combines many different genres together. They blend metal, hard rock, and even some pop in their album “Between Perception and Regret”. To me, Transcend the Fallen finds a home under the metalcore category. From the opening track, the listener already should know what to expect for the rest of the album. All of the songs off of “Between Perception and Regret” are mainly dominated with clean singing vocals accompanied occasionally with screamo-esque shrieks. This album leans towards more of the “softer” side of metal. It doesn’t have blast beats or technical guitar shredding, but focuses on a much more melodic aspect. An example would be their songs “You’re Burning Denim I’m Burning Alive” and “Remembering It Wrong”. The music itself is pretty basic and simple. “Between Perception and Regret” is constructed mainly with chord progressions, moving riffs, and occasional guitar solos. I understand that Transcend the Fallen would be considered more of a “mainstream” sort of band, but I wish that there was a little bit more variety throughout the album. At some points during my listening, I was hoping that one of their songs would stand out a little bit more than the others. The quality of the production was done very well. There were some times where vocals were really dominant and overpowered the guitars.
Transcend the Fallen’s “Between Perception and Regret” clocks in at barely over 40 minutes. This album would be a great collection to your library if you are a fan of Three Days Grace, Dirge Within, Avenged Sevenfold, and/or Killswitch Engage. There were a lot of great melodies, but in the end I would have liked to see more creativity. “Between Perception and Regret” had scored a 7.5/10. The album overall was enjoyable to listen to and would cater to a wide variety of rock/metal fans.
My experience with this album was similar, yet just a little different. With everything I’ve heard over the last year, both in the mass market and the Indie scene, I think Between Perception and Regret boasts MORE creativity and variety than most of its current musical colleagues.
Each of the songs chronologically tell a story, so not only do you get the emotion of each individual song, you get the collective sentiment of the myriad of experienced emotions.
Most importantly, though, I think Transcend the Fallen makes metal accessible. I was pleasantly surprised that genuine vocals permeated the well-crafted metal sound with relatable lyrics; with bursts of harder-core vocals in exactly the right places to really illustrate the pain and frustration of which we are all familiar.
Sure there are the hard-core fans out there that can make sense of the “screamo” genre, but I would stick Between Perception and Regret in my stereo, and keep it there, long before I would replace it with anything else.
I appreciate your rating, though. Personally, I would give it an 8.5/10, but a 7.5/10 with someone of your musical experience is quite a compliment.