Fallen Man – March Of The Sinners

Released quite soon after the band’s latest full-length, ‘March Of The Sinners’ is a five-track EP showcasing a somewhat different sound for Fallen Man. Unlike ‘Reborn’, which cut its industrial metal with catchier, rock-influenced tracks such as ‘Cassidy’, ‘March Of The Sinners’ is particularly unrelenting and abrasive in style, taking its largest influences from a more mid-paced variation of Ministry’s style. There’s not a moment of perfectly clean vocals here, nor is there a sense of fun bounce; it’s all much more serious and nihilistic than ‘Reborn’ was, with its crushing mid-paced grooves sapping any and all sense of happiness out of the music.

The quite brief sixteen and a half minute running time of this EP makes it go by in something of a blur, but there are several moments that stick out as being particularly compelling. ‘Razor’ is perhaps the most like the material on ‘Reborn’, with the industrial bliss that is the uptempo chorus. ‘Crows Eyes’ is perhaps my favorite track, with the most cruelly nihilistic and hateful lyrics, even beating out the rather straightforward ‘Suffer’. What the absence of rock influence takes from the EP in variation, it adds an even darker and more decrepit atmosphere to the proceedings, which is exactly what the band needs. Perhaps the best way that Fallen Man demonstrates the fusion of industrialized groove with dark atmosphere is on ‘Blink 2007 Edit’, which is as much Skinny Puppy as it is Fear Factory with its whispered vocals and delicately placed lead guitar.

As short as this, I feel that ‘March Of The Sinners’ does mark a significant step up from ‘Reborn’, already a solid release in its own right. The reduction of accessible elements works well in the band’s favor, stripping down their style of music in favor of something darker, harsher, and more hard-bitted all around. There’s some small absences; no grinding, Godflesh-influenced tracks like ‘Trust Betrayer’, which I think should be the archetype for everything that Fallen Man does, but we can let that slide in the light of just how good the material here really is.

~ by noktorn on January 1, 2008.