From Autumn To Ashes

Too Bad You're Beautiful (2001)

Duk

These days you can take a small stone, close your eyes, and throw it, and you'll probably hit an metal-emo-hardcore band in the head with it…there are THAT many of them out there now. From Autum To Ashes (FATA) will take that thrown stone, catch it, and hurl it back in your face.

When listening to Too Bad You're Beautiful be prepared to strap yourself in because it is quite a ride. Their music will put you to sleep like a baby's lullaby, then smash you awake with the most gut wrenching, floor pounding hardcore this side of the Mississippi freakin' river. You think you've heard double bass kicks before, after listening to FATA you wonder if you'll ever hear them played this good. The lead singer screams his ass off while the drummer supplies the soft, melodic vocals.

Too Bad You're Beautiful starts off with a pulverizing hardcore romp "The Royal Crown vs Blue Duchess", then it breaks into fantastic metal laced "Cherry Kiss." After being blown away with the first two songs you brace yourself for another furious romp…but wait, what's this? Acoustic guitar? Ahhh…how soothing. The next song "Chloroform Perfume" might be one of the greatest acoustic emo-hardcore tune written…great lyrics like "we sit in corners and sip burnt coffee, count the tiles up on the ceiling, lets skip the pretense and cut straight to the dying…" The acoustic ballad naturally explodes in wailing guitars at the end and us, the listener, is left a quivering mess. "Mercury Rising" is a trippy spoken work piece about punching your TV untill your hand is a bloody pulp…cool, very cool. "Capeside Rock" is truly a blazing song, massive bursts of speed metal guitar riffs break ingto seering melodic hardcore. "Take Her to the Music Store" is yet again another example of how this band can change tempo and song structure in a blink of an eye, ixing smash mouth hardcore with emotion filled serenades. Another outstanding song is "Reflections"…it starts of nice and mello, acoustic guitars picking to lazy drum beats, then guess what? BOOM! We're smacked square in the jaw with blitzkrieging hardcore screams. Finally, I have to honestly say that the final song, "Short Stories With Tragic Endings" is well… a masterpiece. When you hear the violins you wonder, "what's this?" then you hear the beautiful female vocalist and you are being wisked away to la-la land, happy, blissfull then…KA-BOOM! This song is 9 minutes long and is simply amazing, amazing…

If you like your hardcore loud, fast, with floor punch breakdowns and screaming metal guitars then this is your CD. If you like your softer, emotional, heart-felt tunes that make you close your eyes and think of buttercups in a field on a warms summers day, then this is for you. If you like the two styles smashed together, violently, then you must stop reading this bullshit review (my first) and run to your music store and get FATA's Too Bad You're Beautiful. This band is truly outstanding.