Review:
Well this album kind of caught me off guard. Like most albums I'm assigned to review, I look over the insert and photos prior to listening to a single note. Looking at the band pictures I really thought that the singer was one of the fools that participated on the Battle For Ozzfest show a few years ago. My memory seems to have served me wrong since I've yet to find any proof that Travis Johnson participated in the show. But regardless whether it's true or not, I still expected to be delivered 10 tracks of mind-melting nu-metal. To my surprise I was way off.
Flatline's Pave The Way reminds me more of Soilwork if Dave Peters from Throwdown was singing rather than something I expected to sound like Drowning Pool. The band sticks to playing a pretty straightforward style of melodic thrash metal. Throughout the record you can hear both new and old school influences fused together perfectly. The band doesn't stray away from their direction by filling it up with breakdowns. Moshers will be displeased. However, Johnson does give clean vocals a shot a few times throughout the record. It's definitely not their strong point and should probably be avoided on future releases.
Even though I was surprised by this record, mostly for expecting something else, I was far from into it. It's definitely not a bad record but that doesn't necessarily mean its good either. I found it to be kind of just, there. I think their choice in musical style is a little dated and is definitely on the way out. I don't think Flatline is going to do much to gain any huge amounts of fans or reignite the era when Soilwork, The Haunted, and In Flames were on everyone's mind.
If you still sweat bands like Soilwork and like some of the new metalcore that is starting to exchange some of their breakdowns for solos, then you might be into this record. If this CD doesn't make its way into the trash then it's most likely just going to collect dust in my CD rack. I don't hate it, but I'm most likely never listening to it again.
i sold a soilwork tour t-shirt on ebay that listed their jersey date as being in "south amboy new york" and passed it off as a rare misprint and some dude from germany paid me $50 for it
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