‘Dark Skies’ is a weird one for me. From ‘Descendants’ to ‘Deathgrip’ I have fully endorsed everything that the Dallas Metallers have released. Falling in love with their unapologetic vocals and adoption of ultra-low tunings seemingly before it was cool, Fit for A King was once my metric for judging the overall sound quality of whatever metalcore release I was listening to. The very definition of what I thought ‘Metalcore’ was for many years, I am beyond devastated that ‘Dark Skies’ fails to resonate with me.
Formed in Dallas Texas on ‘bootstrap ethics’ the band formed in 2007 and spend their formative years touring the local scene releasing two EP’s entitled ‘Fit For A King’ and ‘Awaken The Vesper’ before releasing their first full length in September of 2011 under the title ‘Descendants’. During this time the band underwent a series of member changed before largely settling into the formation that would carry the band into their Solid-State Records debut and their entry onto the musical map. Charting in the Billboard 200, their 2013 release ‘Creation/Destruction’ was where my love affair with Fit for a King began. Attracting widespread favor and critical exclaim, the band only seemed to rise. Their 2014 ‘Slave to Nothing’ was heralded by some as ‘one of the best hardcore albums to have been released in an otherwise seemingly lackluster year for Christian hardcore’. Following my personal favorite release, Fit for a King then brought the heavy with 2016’s ‘Deathgrip’ and although the structure didn’t quite work, the album made even the casual metal fan stop and take notice.
That brings us up to 2018’s ‘Dark Skies’. Don’t get me wrong, there are aspects of this album that really stand out as worthy of note, but they just feel to few and far between for me to enjoy the album. Beginning with the now clichéd single note run that seems to be the identifier for modern metalcore releases the first song on the album ‘Engraved’ tripped at the first hurdle. Entering to a large and devastating riff so heavy that it forcibly removes the dust from your eardrums, ‘Engraved’ fails to find momentum. Crafted in a watered down ‘Djenty’ style similar to ‘Slave to Nothing’ and ‘Deathgrip’, the song feels like it is sat at the precipice, unsure of whether to continue to climb or just fall back down. This feeling of uncertainty continues into the next song ‘The Price of agony’. Beginning with a half decent hardcoresque build up the song seems to transition between a pop-punk effort and a mildly convincing hardcore outing with no real memorable moments, only seeming to come into its own in the final few seconds of the song.
The third song on the album ‘Backbreaker’ is a much-needed reprieve from the mediocrity of the album thus far. Opening with a deadly combination of kirby’s vicious growl and Lynge’s throat punching guitar stabs ‘Backbreaker’ is a ferocious indication of what the album could have been. Complete with a twenty-four second scream reminiscent of ‘Warpath’, ‘Backbreaker’ is the first song so far that feels like a natural successor to the relentless brutality of ‘Deathgrip’. Slipping back down the shit scale, ‘Anthem of the Defeated’ is a song with few redeeming qualities. Beginning with a laughable attempt to emulate Corey Taylor’s menacing spoken word sections, ‘Anthem’ is easily the poorest song on the record. Having more in common with a Motionless In White track, ‘Anthem’ is a prime example of letting your influences own the music you create.
Luckily though, if you make it past ‘Anthem of the Defeated’, ‘Dark Skies’ starts to become the album you might have expected. Balancing melody with creative guitar jabs, songs such as ‘When everything Means Nothing’ and ‘Youth | Division’ go some way to redeem the album (with the exception of ‘Backbreaker’) through the expert use of clean vocals. Often views as one of the weaker aspects of metalcore, it’s the cleans that stand out amongst the forgettable riffage as the more memorial aspects of the songs. Moving into the closing songs of the album, ‘Shattered Glass’ starts off well, with an opening that feel similar to ‘Backbreaker’ in its intensity, but like ‘Engraved’ struggles with momentum and sounds more like a collection of riffs as opposed to single composition. The one saving grace of the song though comes after another pace murdering spoken word section, whereby the drums and guitars align into a single skull crushing riff around the one minute thirty mark. Moving into the last song of the album, its ironic that ‘Oblivion’ is lyrically concerned with not being forgotten when nothing save the opening riff has anything memorable about it.
In summary, aside from a few saving graces, the main problem with this album is that the songs and the album as a whole have a serious problem with momentum. I’m not saying that every song has to lead into the next, or that bands shouldn’t use silence to denote a song change, I’m saying that an album needs structure to encourage the listener to continue with the album after the last song has finished. Almost bipolar in its arrangement, no song sounds like it should follow the last and those that share some thematic or melodic semblance are deliberately separated. Equally, any momentum within the songs themselves are seriously hampered by lazy transitioning. A prime example is on ‘Shattered Glass’ whereby an attempt to move past the opening riff is solved by a complete break in the music resulting in the supreme death of the songs pace. Considering my love and adoration for all that the band had released prior to ‘Dark Skies’, I truly expected to welcome this album into the Fit For A King catalogue. Yet, as we have explored, this album trips over itself time and time again and offers few reasons to come back for another listen.
A Review by Matthew Young