Album Details

• Artist: The Autumn Offering
• Album: Revelations Of The Unsung
• Label: Victory
• Year of Release: 2004
• Original Release:
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2007-11-10

Autumn Offering have come a long way in a short amount of time. From the sunny land of Daytona, Florida, they've quickly developed a dedicated fanbase and nation-wide attention. Playing live alongside the likes of Slayer, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage and Slipknot will have that effect on you. While I have not had the pleasure of hearing their newest release or the one previous to it, Revelations of the Unsung seems like a sensible place to start; at the start of the band's recording career.

   Autumn Offering plays a brand of metalcore that is extremely thrashy and carries undertones of southern rock and metal. Think Pantera by way of Lamb of God via Slayer. The riffs are fast-paced, mostly very well written and sadly heavy on the stop-start technique. This is the entire "core" of metalcore and I despise it's overuse, a quick route to cheap weight. And the breakdowns...if the band could just curb their instinct to shoot down a fabolous, melodic dual-lead passage with a breakdown section that absolutely doesn't fit at all. It's that hardcore mentality that ultimately sees them fall short of impressing me, at the very least. But regardless, there are moments when Revelations of the Unsung surprises you to no end. The closing passage of opener "The Great Escape" sticks out, fusing an up-tempo stop-start riff with blazing dual leads in a layering of pure metal bliss. "Revelations" is a kickass song through and through, with some of the album's best lyrics. As far as the vocals go, they could be better and they could be a far lot worse. I am somewhat pleased to see the band has since found a new vocalist, because the original (a Dennis Miller) was average at best.

    So, on the whole, I'd say Autumn Offering set themselves a shaky foundation to begin their careers on. They've since lost their original guitarist, drummer and vocalist and whatever they've done since is either vastly improved or the total opposite. I can't imagine them sticking to this sound, it's far too full of the trappings of a style of metal that may be seeing it's time in the sun fade. They've got buckets of talent, that much is obvious, but they'll have to (or already have, I'll have to find out) get out of the shadow of the Lamb of Gods and Killswitch Engages out there before that talent can shine fully. 

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