Falling in Reverse’s newest album, “Just Like You,” has fans giddy with anticipation. The Vegas quartet’s creative vision is unparalleled, but no one expected their new material to trump facets of the last two albums. Just how much better can music get than thought-provoking lyrics like “I’m on that rack! Fly like a jet! / I’m on that next! Girl loves sex” from “Alone” and lead guitarist Jacky Vincent’s absolute disregard for mood and tempo?
FIR vocalist Ronnie Radke describes the band’s new album as a sequel to “Dying Is Your Latest Fashion” — the first album released by his former band, Escape the Fate. Pre-release single “God, If You Are Above” opens with a riff that may sound familiar — it is almost identical to “The Webs We Weave,” the first track on “DIYLF.”
This copy-paste effort, or lack thereof, is to be commended. Ingenuity is overrated — the verses and chorus are catchy, which seems to be all that matters nowadays. The click-crazy generation of Twitter tweens obviously has no need, nor desire for vivid “imagery” or “metaphors” that might actually take a few seconds to interpret.
The riff-off returns on the next single, “Guillotine IV,” and it is here that the progressive nature of FIR is fully realized. While Radke originally paid homage to metalcore band Still Remains, by contextualizing “the worst is yet to come” as a line in Escape the Fate’s “The Guillotine,” even more respect is paid when the riff from Still Remains' song “Close to the Grave” is featured in “Guillotine IV.” Though a nice tip of the hat, it would've been better if Falling in Reverse plagiarized the entire track -- albeit with a different title -- and sent it up the line through Epitaph Records.
Radke and company are such progressives. Forget magazine awards — if they attended the University, perhaps the Honor Committee would award such novel plagiarism with expulsion.
Of course, none of this should discount the sheer technical talent of the Vegas quartet. “Guillotine IV” features a half-minute brutal breakdown and monotone growls. Radke can obviously still scream, as evidenced by the nearly screamless FIR discography. But what exactly is the point of variety when you’ve already “made it”? Such effort is better spent bashing your kid critics on Twitter and neutralizing any aspiring creativity among young fans with a healthy dose of mediocrity.
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