From Autumn to Ashes' Abandon Your Friends is the followup to their Vagrant debut, The Fiction We Live. If you've followed From Autumn to Ashes, you've probably noticed that from album to album their sound tends to lighten up, and Abandon Your Friends continues the trend.
The album starts off with "Where Do You Draw the Line," which is a pretty good example of what to expect from From Autumn to Ashes. It has some solid guitar riffs and effiecent metalcore shouting in the verses, and then carries a solid melody and some solid, clean vocals by drummer Francis Mark, which makes the song somewhat catchy. The next song, "Inapprope," differs greatly compared to FATA's previous work. The song is carried by Mark's singing and has some catchy guitar hooks and drumming.
After a solid beginning, From Autum to Ashes run into a few bumps in the road. "Sugar Wolf" and "Vicious Cockfight" have some solid guitar work, but in the end are way too predictable and, ultimately, generic metalcore. It doesn't really help matters that the drum work is barely there and the bass follows the guitar like they're stuck together by super glue. "Streamline" follows, and the song is so slow, it's a mood-killer. It doesnt the help that the lyrics on the track are extremely weak and would fit in on any generic Victory emo CD.
The rest of the album, up to the final two tracks, is a mix of generic metalcore and boring, predictable melodies sung by Francis over some mellow music work. FATA redeem themselves slightly with "Jack and Ginger," which is a solid track, if only for the delivery on the vocals by Ben. The album then ends with another slow track in "Abandon Your Friends," though the keys by guitarist Brian is slightly refreshing.
In the end, Abandon Your Friends just can't finish the deal. It has its moments where they nail the metalcore sound and their softer songs are catchy, with well-written guitar hooks and melodies, but they just can't deliver it the entire CD. Towards the end, the songs sound way too generic and there are too many slower songs. If you're a fan of From Autumn to Ashes, you'll be disappointed. I still can't understand how something that starts off so well ends so badly.