Thousand Foot Krutch - Exhale (2016)

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Thousand Foot Krutch - Exhale (2016)

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Thousand Foot Krutch has always been one of those bands that displays copious amounts of potential to fans, then seems to let them down in the next breath. They were never the most innovative band in the scene, but when their third and highly underrated effort The Art Of Breaking hit the shelves in 2005, there was a flash of potential for more. The instruments were slightly more complex, the lyrics were much better than the typical “throw up your fist” pump up song that was largely found on 2003’s Phenomenon, and Trevor explored more territory vocally. Then came 2007’s The Flame In All Of Us, which unfortunately was not a step in the right direction.While not a bad album in itself, it simply couldn’t live up to the beauty of Breaking. The critically acclaimed Welcome To The Masquerade came next, blowing Flame out of the water and sitting up pretty close to the 2005 effort. 2011’s The End Is Where We Begin was a “back-to-roots” album for the band and was actually executed quite well. It showed a band that could stand on its own and still succeed. For a time. 2013’s Oxygen: Inhale was filled with dumbed-down ballads and was disappointing as a whole, but did succeed with the fantastic “Untraveled Road”. Needless to say a lot of pressure was on Oxygen: Exhale, and though the songs aren’t necessarily bad in themselves, they are unfortunately predictable and largely unsatisfying.

First let’s address the sound-alike moments throughout. “Incomplete” is a fairly decent rock song, until you realize that it sounds almost exactly like Breaking Benjamin’s 2004 hit “Sooner or Later”. Seriously, I was waiting for Ben Burnley to croon during the outro. The intro of “Give Up The Ghost” finds Trevor screaming “are you ready?!” almost exactly like Jonathan Davis in Korn’s 1994 hit “Blind”. The main riff in “A Different Kind of Dynamite” is eerily similar to something out of Tom Morello’s (of Rage Against The Machine fame) playbook. You get the picture.

Sadly, that’s not even the worst part. “Adrenaline” is sports-junkie walkout fodder that will probably be featured at every NASCAR race this year, “Can’t Stop This” is full of some extremely awkward lyrics and rapping not to mention copying Pillar’s “Throwdown” in terms of song structure. There’s a whole lot of mundane filler that will only catch the ears of few.

However, “Running With Giants” is easily one of the best TFK songs released and should’ve been what the rest of the record sounded like. There’s some nice spicy riffing, decent screams, and a fairly catchy chorus with potent lyrics. “Push” admittedly becomes mediocre, but does have some cool high-pitched riffing in the intro. For all its faults, the hook “the ghosts that haunt me have been outhaunted” in “Give Up The Ghost” will surely stick in your head, as will the menacing, slow building intro of “The River”. And none of the band members sound bad. Trevor McNevan is quite the talented vocalist and an enigmatic frontman, but again the lack of innovation holds the band back.

Personally, I love alternative metal/modern rock, whatever you wanna call it. I do have a weakness for it (check out my ratings) and I listen to it a lot. TFK has also been a band that has consistently stayed on my radar for years. That being said, I wish this record had sounded more like successful single “Running With Giants”, because this band has so much potential and a thrilling live show to boot. Sadly though, this band needs some kindling.

by bentheREDfan, sputnikmusic.com