Much like The Devil Wears Prada, Farewell To Freeway suffers greatly from the whole decent metalcore ruined by utterly sniveling, wimpy clean vocals syndrome…

Musically, the band has a decent mix of catchy, commercial heavy/clean Killswitch Engage styled metalcore mixed with a dash of Misery Signal-ish layering and harmony. There are some decent riffs and some nice moments amid the CD that show the band certainly has a grasp of metalcore dynamics, such as “Desperate”, the stirring opening riff of the title track, superb melodic opening of “The Glory Days”, delicate interlude “Convictions” and sturdy “Risk It All”.

However, when not delivering typical gruff metalcore roars, the bands delves in the sort of clean pop punk emo whine so common in a lot of Victory Records more commercial acts like Bayside, Hawthorne Heights and Silverstein. The penultimate track “The Awakening” is even a full on whine fest with even more limited roars, which is a shame as it’s followed by one of the albums sternest tracks (thought still flocked with those inane croons). Granted, the formula has been used countless times by bands like the aforementioned The Devil Wears Prada, A Static Lullaby, Twenty Inch Burial, Above This Fire, The Cardinal Effect, Across Five Aprils, The Calico System and label A Day to Remember, but here as with those bands, no matter how good the metal element, the metal community is simply going to switch of once the singing starts.

The thing is where, say Kingston Falls, mix it well based on the songwriting and clean vocals that don’t come across as too whiny, Farewell To Freeway lose any momentum or vague metal credibility the instant the clean vocals start. The result is an album full of solid melodic metalcore potential ruined by a vast dose of sugary wimpiness that virtually ruins all the good things.

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