I've been writing reviews for awhile now, and as much as it takes a herculean effort to wring a five star review out of me, it takes an equally brutally bad record to recieve a real panning from me. The last Earth Crisis record, Slither recieved the aforementioned panning, and I stand by it. It really was a terrible record.

So, a few years later, Freya (previously known as Nemesis, and known before that as three-fifth's of Earth Crisis) releases s The Last Light Drains. It's been almost eight years since "Destroy the Machines", a genre defining metalcore masterpiece, and the real question is, where are we now?

Billed as "retain[ing] the heaviness of Earth Crisis while incorporating a new level of melodicism and a profoundly different thematic emphasis" The band certainly delivers on part of that promise. Thematically - that is, lyrically - the band is far more concerned with personal issues than the apocalyptic hardline-esque vision of straight edge. (In fact, two of the members are old fashioned meat eating, hard drinkin' guys) Moments of heaviness do exist on the record, but in many ways, they lacks follow through, almost as if the band is reluctant to offend the delicate sensibilities of it's listeners. Whether this is a bid for radio play is left up to the reader.

The record is truly and completely confused. The band doesn't seem to know if wants to go for a post-hardcore sound like it's contemporaries, or revert to a purely brutal hardcore act. "Negative Infinity" sounds like Grade, while "Down in Flames" is pure heaviness; "Glasseating Smile" reminds me of Atreyu. It goes on like that for thirteen tracks.

Trapped within the record is a strong hardcore EP, and it seems to be struggling with a mediocre post-hardcore band that's just trying to whine it's way to the surface. Joining the mismatched crew, is a smidgen of relentlessly annoying nu-metal, complete with well, rapped vocals, and whiny interludes.

This is clearly a talented group of musicians, and for a portion of the record, they excel at providing a powerful, heavy and unique record. Detracting from the strong tracks though, is this incomprehensible need write bland versions of their contemporaries. The irony is of course, that in their previous works, they wrote the songs they wanted, and the fans were drawn to them; now, it appears that the band is trying to pander to them instead.