The Fall Of Troy released OK, a welcome return seven years past their last record, especially since it's for free on their band website. Though for those familiar with the Washington mathcore trio an "okay" record has the potential for so much more.
Album opener “401k” may perhaps be the band’s insurance policy that they aren’t going anywhere, exploding in all their progressive elements. The alternating hard-soft intensity of “Inside Out” precedes a crunching progressive breakdown that drones on in genre-bending crossroads with twists and turns. By the time the melodic howls of “Savior” come round, the sounds of OK play like a record that you can’t be bothered to do anything else except listen in.
Vocalist Thomas Erak might not have the same guttural frequency to his growl as he used to (“A Single Word”) yet from that same mouth comes literally whispers, joined by breakdowns and vocal harmonies and endless guitar riffs. Paired with this the bellowing screams of bassist Tim Ward resonate prominently on tracks like “Side by Side” and “Suck-O-Matic” as a means to carry a pair of uppity tracks forward.
Just when the song structure of loud and frantic starts to sound somewhat formulaic, Erak slows down just slightly with a bravado that this is all just “An Ode to the Masochists.” Electronic warbles introduce the melodious “Auto Repeater” yet the explosion of an ending hardly saves it from sounding tiresomely experimental. Then hushed whispers disperse the wild screams of “Love Sick” in what sounds like essentially an extended breakdown more than an actual song.
Yet tracks such as the closing “Your Loss” meshes together to remind you everything The Fall Of Troy does so well: hardcore breakdowns, math rock moments, melodic bridges, all put together with tightly knit precision. Some 33 minutes in and the OK album finishes as quickly as it started, a bit disjointed but a nice introduction of a band back from a short hiatus and set on rocking.