ALBUM REVIEW: The Fifth Dimension – Rise To Fall

To paraphrase the old joke, “What has Gothenburg ever done for us?”. The affirming punchline list of melodeath titans like IN FLAMES or DARK TRANQUILLITY runs longer than the average Monty Python spam skit, but it’s hardly untrue. Quite what is in the water over there science hasn’t figured out yet, but if it is something in the water, then RISE TO FALL have definitely had a few skinfuls since the early to mid-90s.

While the homage paid to that region of Sweden we all know and love is impossible to ignore, the Bilbao-based five piece tend to wander the line with a metalcore pair of shoes on, a modernisation of the old ways that felt like a natural conclusion to where melodeath could have ended up – and did, for some of the bands. The Fifth Dimension is, with that said, exactly what you would expect it to be. Therein lies the problem. Now, is another 50 or so minutes of melodeath/metalcore inherently bad? Obviously not, if you’re a sensible sort. But having been snared on these hooks before and lured in by these melodies already, it feels like the proverbial circle-walking in a dark forest, where the trees start to look more familiar because we’ve already seen them.

To expand on that a little; the album is certainly not short of those hooks or melodies, nor is it short of quality. It’s a high-energy, high-talent affair from the word go, with opener Rising Sun crashing through the melodeath checklist at breakneck speed after a synth-ier opening, employing an absolutely ferocious double-kick throughout to great effect.

Hierophant charges in after it with much the same enthusiasm, but even after only two songs there’s already a strong sense of déjà vu present. The last 30 years of melodeath/metalcore have set a distinct pattern that The Fifth Dimension follows to the letter and you’ll struggle to not just think of the songs that the tracks sound like, rather than take them for what they are. But for the polish, Empty Ward could have been pulled directly from Clayman, while the inclusion of ex-SOILWORK frontman Bjorn Strid on Intruder might be more harm than help, as it steers the track even further towards sounding like just another SOILWORK song. It’s a shame, as the tracks themselves are good and pushing great at times – but it’s so hard to shake the feeling of retreading old and very well-worn ground.

This isn’t to say that there’s no variety on offer. The acoustic led Heroes breaks up the monotone back end of the album nicely by weaving a softer touch into proceedings (and has a great twiddly bridge to boot). But it’s certainly not enough to make the entire experience not feel like a genre-specific best of mixtape rather than being the reared head of a particularly unique beast.

The Fifth Dimension is a piece of work driven hard by an absolute passion for the genre and stacks of individual talent, there’s no denying that. But it lacks a certain spark, something to definitively point at and say, “this is why this album stands out from its peers”. RISE TO FALL seem to be quite happy treading their line without wandering too far, meaning that this feels like simply more of the same rather than creating any meaningful imprint on the music landscape. Leaving an album feeling neither better nor worse for having listened to it is not always a bad thing, but feeling like once is enough either way is pretty damning however you swing it.

Rating: 6/10

The Fifth Dimension is out now via Noble Demon.

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