Album Review: Wake by For Today

By Nick

Known for their very direct Christian message, 808 bass drops and brutal breakdowns, For Today are at it again with their new album Wake. This release is their first on Nuclear Blast Records and is by some of the best work they have come up with. The band themselves said that this was the longest they’ve taken to write and record an album and truly have never been so excited about the music they are writing.

For Today usually stick to similar styles and format for every album and vocalist Mattie Montgomery went as far to say that there is a formula that fans expect but they “threw that out the window this time.” This vibe is definitely heard on Wake with the various song structures and the dynamics on the tracks. Every member unquestionably went above and beyond and really put their best foot forward on this material. The instrumentation of every song is some of the bands best and the grooves are undeniably bouncy and will be sure to get you moving. 

(Image courtesy of this source.)

Fans of For Today will certainly not be disappointed with this release since there are still the signature in your face breakdowns and Mattie’s signature harsh vocals. Mattie even brings back some of his high screams on songs like “Broken Lens.”
The band is one of the bands waving the flag for the Christian metalcore/hardcore scene and the lyrical content of Wake definitely captures the band’s usual message of fighting until the end and standing up for yourself and your beliefs. 

I’m confident in saying that this is some of the heaviest material the band has ever written but also some of the softest as well with the chorus on “Deserter” as well as very soft sections on some of the tracks, making the brutal heavy parts sound so much heavier contrasted against them. The song “Bitter Roots” is a huge departure from the typical For Today sound and shows that the band has more to offer than what they usually dish out. The first two thirds of the song can almost be considered a ballad with the band playing quietly behind guitarist Ryan Leitru’s clean vocals before the band amps it up and Mattie roars onto the track and they switch back and forth from soft to vicious in the matter of seconds on the rest of the track. I hope that the band has a couple more songs like this up their sleeve for future releases because it really splits up the record a bit and gives me a brief break before my ears are slammed by more colossal breakdowns.

Their albums keep getting better and better and who knows where the band will go from here. The band is a touring machine so there will be many opportunities to catch some of these new songs played live next to the band’s signature live catalog.

4.5/5

Posted in: Album Review, Metal, Out of Babylon, WSOU Exclusive