The Fall of Troy - Doppelganger

How do you explain The Fall of Troy to someone? There have been countless times where I've tried to describe the band's sound, only to confuse my listener beyond reason. Rush mixed with Circle Takes the Square? The Mars Volta versus Hot Cross? Yes meets screamo? How could any of those combinations turn into incredible music? How could you mix the finesse and technicality of progressive music and mix it with the grating vocals and brute force of today's hardcore scene and end up with anything better than Nickelback?

Well, The Fall of Troy have found that balance, and they have perfected it. You get the “holy shit, I'm in your face” aspect of hardcore with the “holy shit, this is incredibly skillful music” aspect of progressive and end up with a “holy shit, I've never heard anything like this before” aspect that is The Fall of Troy.

So far, the band have released 3 albums. A self-titled debut, Doppelganger, and Manipulator, each album getting progressively more polished in production. The self-titled album is gritty and raw; more like a live show than a studio recording. Doppelganger has some polish to it, but it doesn't have too much manipulation or too many studio effects, where as Manipulator is almost over the top in it's production. In my eyes, Doppelganger wins over the other two simply because the form follows the bands “genre” for lack of a better term. Think about it. They maintain some grit that keeps them raw, but it also has the production to help the progressive bits really shine. It's absolutely genius.

But that isn't the only reason Doppelganger surpasses the other two albums. The songs on this album are, well...fucking genius. You can feel the months of work this album took to put together. Each song is deeply charactered, reflecting some facet of The Fall of Troy's style. The guitar work throughout the album is unreal. You'd be hard pressed to find a more skilled guitarist in the last 20 than Thomas Erak, and his skill shines as brightly as ever on every single track. The only thing more impressive than the guitar might be the drums. Andrew Forsman is an unstoppable force on the skins, relentlessly assaulting them with an inhuman vigor that only the world's most elite drummers would understand. John Bonham would be proud.

The energy on this album is consistent through every single song. The instant the album starts, “I Just Got This Symphony Goin' “sets the tone and tempo of the entire album. Erak rips AND melts faces with one of the most impressive tapping licks I've ever heard. It's fast. Real fast. And a quick listen to the drumming gives you an insight on just how ridiculously good Andrew is. His fills are godly on this track.

“Act One, Scene One” is probably the album's weakest song. The song is incredibly well structured, but it just doesn't fit the album. It's somewhat slower than all the other songs, and doesn't seem to keep with the "in your face" energy present throughout the album. On it's own, this is a decent piece of music, but it feels like a disconnect when looking at the album as a whole.

“F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.” is a song that anyone who has played Guitar Hero III probably knows. As The Fall of Troy's most tame song, it was selected as the track to get new listeners into the band. It isn't exactly representative of The Fall of Troy as a whole, as it is the most generically structured song The Fall of Troy has ever released. The song, as the name gives hint to, is a remix of “F.C.P.S.I.T.S.G.E.P.G.E.P.G.E.P.” off their self-titled album. This version amps up the energy and switches the guitar for the bass part.

The rest of the songs on the album are what really make it shine. The quick, two minute burners like “You Got a Death Wish, Johnny Truant?”, “Laces Out, Dan!”, and “We Better Learn How To Hotwire a Uterus” keep the album flowing, while odd song structures in “Mouths Like Sidewinder Misssles” and “The Hol[ ]y Tape” keep things interesting. The guitar is abrasive, the drumming manic, the bass pounding, and the vocals piercing. But somehow, Thomas Erak and Co. manage to somehow intertwine these otherwise discomforting musical elements into something that actually works.

Song rankings:

I Just Got This Symphony Goin' – Fucking incredible. One of my all time favorite songs. 11/10

Act One, Scene One – Okayish. Not great, not really even good. 6/10.

FCPREMIX – Great. Fast paced, and a good way for people to buy into the band. 9/10

“You Got a Death Wish, Johnny Truant?” - Not fantastic. About as chaotic as it gets. Kind of an annoying song. There are parts that I really like, but the majority of it doesn't work for me. 7/10

Mouths Like Sidewinder Misssiles. - No, that isn't a misspelling of missiles. It has 3 S's in it on this album because it is a remake of a song from their first album, which had missiles spelled correctly. Anyways, probably my second favorite song on the album, and one of my favorite Fall of Troy songs overall. Fucking fast, unforgiving, breakneck pace that doesn't let up for a second. This song trucks, and it trucks hard. The instrumentals at the end are proof that the music this band is putting out is so good, they don't need vocals to keep the listener engaged. Brilliant. 10/10

The Ho[ ]ly Tape – I have no idea what's up with the song title, but this song is awesome. Perfectly epitomizes The Fall of Troy's guitar style. Fast, staccato, pitch-bending, fret-burning, effect-drenched awesomeness. Tempos are made and shattered moments later, keys change in a heart beat. The skill required to produce music like this is on another level. It's like a breath of fresh air after the same old same old we've been getting for years. 10/10

Laces Out, Dan! - This song feels dramatic. Passionate. You can feel the emotion poured into this one. It's like I Just Got This Symphony Goin' minus the epicness. The drumming in this one really stands out to me. Crazy song structure, and it's over in a flash. Keeps you on your toes. 9/10

We Better Learn to Hotwire a Uterus – Good God, the time signature in this song changes every 10 seconds just about. As the shortest song on the album, it's probably a good thing. Two minutes of this works very well. Three might have been too much. A bit competitive, although when the “creaky door” guitar effect comes in near the end of the song, I get chills. - 8/10

Whacko Jacko Steals the Elephant Man's Bones – This feels more genre constricted than any of the other songs on the album. Although, I do really like it. There's so much going on, but it all harmonizes and fits together so well, that it becomes decipherable and comprehensible. Next to FCPREMIX, this is probably the most straight forward song in terms of structure and style, although that isn't necessarily a bad thing. After the absolutely wild last 3 songs, it's nice to feel something somewhat recognizable again. Great song. 9/10

Tom Waits – Spacey effects, clean guitar, heavy distortion, insane solos. The vocals bother me to a point on this one, but the rest is SO good, I can easily get passed it. Not only is this an awesome song, but the story behind it is equally interesting. If you get time, check out the song “The Fall of Troy” by Tom Waits. 9/10
Macaulay McCulkin – In true Fall of Troy style, they leave the longest, most ambitious song for last. This song switches up styles more than Lady Gaga...awful jokes aside, this song goes from one end of the musical spectrum to the other at lightning speed. How the drummer keeps all his tempos straight during live shows is really something else. This song isn't quite as hard as all the other ones, which is fitting for an ending I feel. Wonderful exit, fantastic song. 10/10.

Individual album score: 98/110 = 89%

Overall album score = 4.5/5

One of my favorites. It's one of the few bands to which I continually come back.

EDIT: I know that there is the Ghostship Demos and Phantom On the Horizon, but I don't count the Ghostship Demos as a CD because it's impossible to get all the songs, and Phantom On the Horizon came out after I wrote this, and I was too lazy to change it at all.