Album Review: Fans Of The Dark - Fans Of The Dark

First impressions are important, because they're hard to shake. Once you see something a certain way, you have to retrain yourself to see it otherwise, and that isn't always easy to do. Case in point; my first impression upon seeing this album from Fans Of The Dark is twofold; 1)The name and the font are too obvious an homage to Iron Maiden, and 2)That creature looks pretty darn stupid. Now, I'm not going to let that be the only thing I think about the band, but it isn't the first impression they might want to make. If the first thing we're led to believe is they don't have an identity of their own, it's setting a pretty low bar.

That lack of identity carries over right away, with "The Ghost Of Canterville" opening the album with Maiden-esque guitar lines, and a slow bass gallop through the verse that is about as stereotypical as you can get. Plenty of metal bands do this sort of thing, but when you pair it with the imagery, it's hard to tell where influence ends and ripping off begins.

"Escape From Hell" borrows more, even some vocal tone, from the Blaze years, but it winds up with an energetic and catchy chorus, so it easily lives up to whatever you think of those years of Iron Maiden's career. "Dial Mom For Murder" also has that kind of hook, and while the lyric isn't as clever as they want to think it is, the song overcomes that by virtue of being fun. The band can play, and they have serious vocal talent, so when the songs give them a platform to showcase that, it's hard to complain about what they're doing.

But there is a complaint to make, and it's that the songwriting doesn't always do what I was saying. There are some solid hooks, but the way we get there isn't always the most interesting. The shifts in tone from passage to passage sound wider than with most bands, which means some of the songs feel a little bit disjointed, as if they're treading water until we get to the part that matters.

For a band that is pointing our attention toward Iron Maiden, they don't adhere to the complaints people have about that band. Some of these songs are too long, too slow, and not packed densely enough with energetic song craft. Maiden themselves put out an album this year that can be criticized the same way, but it had more going for it than this record does. There isn't a song on this album that has the sort of hook you're going to remember later in the day, let alone out of the blue some time later. It's the kind of pleasant record that is fine as long as you aren't paying close attention to it. It sounds good, but won't leave much of an impact.