ALL THE WAY DOWN - For The Princess

All The Way Down - For The Princess

12 songs
43:32 minutes
***** ***
Noiseworks

Bandpage

When All The Way Down from Wiltz in Northern Luxembourg were founded in 2009, the four musicians must have been really young. Their first EP titled We Aren’t All The Same followed in 2012, and the still very young musicians manages to create a very mature sounding kind of skate punk that didn’t really have to hide behind more established bands. It then took them another five years to come up with their debut longplayer For The Princess, released on the local label Noiseworks Records. This is a monstrously long time between albums, but in the case of All The Way Down, it can be explained that they totally revamped their style.

First of all, All The Way Down are one of the very few bands with a lead singing drummer. Other such rarities are Mutiny On The Bounty, although they are mostly an instrumental band, and Canadian heavy metal band Exciter. Phil Collins doesn’t count because as soon as he took over the microphone, the band had a different live drummer. Other drummers may have taken over the vocals for a song or two, so All The Way Down are really special in that way.

Of course that’s not the only thing that makes them stand out as a band. Their erstwhile skate punk sound has matured into melodic punk, with a whole lot of different influences. It would be easy to compare them to local melodic punk rockers Versus You, but after closer inspection, there are actually worlds between both bands. In fact All The Way Down are not afraid to rely occasionally on searing metal riffs, there are also some ska beats and lots of alternative rock patterns. Due to drummer John Wolter’s expressive vocals, there is an atmosphere of omnipresent melancholy permeating their music.

The twelve songs are usually between three and four minutes long, and never lack quality. The good and transparent production which gives equal weight to each musician helps of course, but the main reason is their good hand at songwriting. The vocals are quite special, some may find them too emotive, but I actually came to like them. Another highlight is the excellent dual guitar work where the occasion metal and math rock moments find their way into the music.

All The Way Down seem to be still quite young people, even after eight years into the band, and it seems as if they are still refining their very own take on melodic punk rock. For The Princess is a really pleasant album that doesn’t disappoint even once during its three quarters of an hour running time. Keep your eyes and ears open as I am sure that we will get to hear a lot more from these talented Northerners in the not so distant future.

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