Band : For All Those Sleeping
Album title : Cross Your Fingers
Label : Fearless Records
Distributor : Rough Trade Benelux
Release date : 20/07/2010
Release : CD

This troupe of youngsters got together in 2007, after the foursome of Mike Champa (vocals), Jared Pierskalla (guitar & vocals), David Volgman-Stevens (guitar) and Ethan Trekell (drums), whom met at high school in St. Cloud (Minnesota) finally found their bassist (and additional backing singer) in London Snetsinger.

With high working ethics, the boys composed themselves a set of songs (some of which they self-released on a self-titled 2007 demo and the September 2008 EP entitled The Lies We Live) consisting of a highly melodic mixture of Post-Hardcore, Screamo, and Pop and set out on tours, wowing the audiences fortunate enough to witness the band at that early stage (in their formation year, they impressed to the point of being invited to join the Van's Warped Tour and at the Cornerstone Festival - all before the release of their EP). By word of mouth (and probably helped somewhat by the band's appearances at Sunshine Festival and MTV's DJ & The Flo show), news on the band got to the A & R people at Fearless Records, and after hearing what the band was up to, they immediately offered 'em a deal which was signed in late 2009. After some pre-production by Don DeBiase on 7 out of the 10 songs on the album, the guys went into the studio with producer Cameron Mitzell. And in order to maximize the material's punch to the max, the recordings were then mastered by the famed Alan Douches. With the album already out in mid-Summer, the band was already on the cross-USA Go Fist Pump Yourself Tour, participants of which were also A Skylit Drive, Tides Of Man, Sleeping With Sirens, and Abandon All Ships.

Now I could make a long job of describing the band's music to you, but since no less than 6 out of the 10 songs were posted at myspace.com/forallthosesleeping for you to sample and savour, why should I bother? Oh yeah, good form, right? Well, in short then? Okay...expect a very melodic Post-Hardcore with very nicely intertwining and melodic twin guitar runs and pounding rhythm section (only, don't call it Metalcore, if you please, because the underlaying melodies and topside vocal stylings are simply too Poppy), and a rather clean and somewhat high-pitch heady lead-singer whom gets vocal backings from two additional singers (one apparently specializing in a rather grunted style, the other in clean harmonics and “group chant” styles, which will probably both invite crowds to start a sing-along). Great stuff when you first come across it, but I have a negative afterthought in my mind. So please don't flog me if it turns out this happens to be the type of music the guys truly love, but somehow I cannot shake the feeling this is made to please an as broad as possible (American) audience. Also, I kinda wonder how the guys are gonna perform some of the material which clearly includes synth sounds (I also heard some strings in one of the songs).

85/100

Tony.