From First To Last – Self Titled

I used to hate From First To Last. After I reviewed their last two CDs I never listened to them again. It was generic screamo and everything about it screamed at me to stay away. I even deleted the songs from my iPod and having just surpassed 50 days of music on the thing its safe to say I never delete anything off my iPod. But I did delete From First To Last. Now though, I don’t hate the band; instead I laugh at them because not only is their story slightly comical but it also always reminds me of the sad state of the music industry.

First is the story of Sonny Moore – the band’s singer who started singing for them in his late teens or something like that. He was arrogant, cocky and just an overall ass (or so I’ve read). He got into fights at Warped Tour with some of the biggest names in the scenes because he thought he deserved more. He got the band kicked off numerous tours (two that I can think off of the top of my head) because of his antics and disrespect to the bands helping them out and then there was his voice: he couldn’t sing. Maybe he could in the studio (if you called what he did singing) but in the live setting he had no control. He constantly ruined his voice, lost it and had to drop off shows and get surgery. It was sad but the kids still ate it up. Then he split. Sonny Moore – the only thing worth talking about in From First To Last – went solo (which is a whole other rotten can of worms) and left the remaining members of From First To Last to carry on without him.

Then the sad state of the music industry kicked in as Suretone Records picked them up. They were now on a major label (which is better than them being on Epitaph I guess). They had no singer, had horrible touring records, had tons of drama surrounding them but the label still wanted to suck out all the life from the brand name and get all the emo boys and girls to buy the album.

So here we are, the band has shuffled their lineup – moving their guitarist up to vocal duties – and released their newest album, a self-titled effort. Even with the self-titled moniker, it doesn’t sound like From First To Last; something which makes it all the more comical. The band seems to have left their screamo days behind them; they’re no longer riding the wings of that pestilent disease but have joined another,a more radio friendly one: emo-rock.

They do have their screams every once in a while but for the most part, From First To Last is filled with radio rock vocals built with a dash of pre-packaged angst. It’s predictable and bland with no real intensity or originality. The songs meld into one another and while they attempt to blast you away with their wall of sound, nothing on the record stands out. It sounds like a BEC Recordings artist without the religious overtone and the only song that has any semblance of originality – Worlds Away – still feels like generic radio single (which is probably why it’s the first single on the album).

The band are trying to rely on their name recognition but they no longer sound the same and even though I hated Sonny Moore with a passion, he at least gave me something to talk about. Now From First To Last don’t even have that.