Fallen Angel
Crawling Out of Hell
Killer Metal Records
2014
This album came originally out, a number of years ago, privately alongside a novel, and was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy of albums, that never really materialized back in the day, but allegedly, following this re-release, the band is again back at work on… so Killer Metal Records, decided to reissue the first part of the “trilogy” I would imagine w/o the novel, but maybe the band would have some left, or maybe they’ll reprint it, who knows…
Fallen Angel were/are a band from Upstate NY, that around the time that this album came out, around 2010, if memory serves me right, consisted of John Cruppe and Robb Lotta on guitars, the latter of which, some might remember from the Belladona (Anthrax’s singer) solo projects. They were pretty interesting, in the fact that they did at the time, unsigned, create an entire concept, recorded the album, wrote the novel and printed it, which also featured a lot of paintings that depicted various scenes from the “book” and also had “personas” and “makeup” to go for their performances. All in all they attempted a rather “intense” and high production value approach for the time, which should have paid off, but unfortunately didn’'t yield any fruits.
The band did sound a lot like an early Iced Earth meets Judas Priest sort of hybrid with vocals that weren’t bad at all, but maybe lacked a bit in versatility and certain identity, that said without being bad per ce just a bit too “sulfury” at times!
Another deciding factor might be that with 20 songs and 68 minutes, but without a “definite” hit single, a video, or a tour, to support themselves, the band, had perhaps spent whatever budget they had on the visual aspect, without then being able to promote what they had created... had “indiegogo” or a similar service of pledging money “for something to be made”, been at their disposal back then, or if it were, at least, popular, maybe they might have “made it”.
The whole concept follows a man’s journey, after a car crash, as he transcends to the afterlife, and then is torn “between” heaven and hell or something “if I remember” the premise of the novel correctly, as it’s been years since I read it! (lol) – Yeah I got the original – There are a few quite impressive numbers like the hard hitting “Darklord” or the ethereal “The Answer” or the quite intense “On and On” and a few more and overall the band tries to go for a grand scope in this… but I suppose, this “early” attempt, has its “flaws”... but one cannot but also praise the band for having the balls to even come up with a concept of this magnitude and not “sucking” magnanimously...
I’m pretty sure, their second “strike/chapter” could be greatly improved… taking into consideration what’s a little wrong with this one… slightly more compact, songs, would not hurt and trying to vary the delivery a bit, would also be nice, I mean Steve Senuik, their singer, can do the “high” stuff, and he can sing melodically too, now if he could gracefully switch between the two more often, it would be nice and help the dynamics within the songs show... because right now the songs were a little “unspectacular” and easy to figure out, the band should try to become a little more adventurous, but without compromising their well-defined identity... just making things a bit more adventurous.
The band currently is comprised of John Cruppe on lead guitar, James Dipinto on lead guitar, Steve Seniuk on lead vocals, Bob Embury on bass and Frankie Quaggs on drums.
Listening back to “Crawling Out of Hell” well I hear an album with a lot of untapped promise and a band that could easily take it to the next level. A band that tries real hard, but just has success escaping through its fingers, I’m sure, they’ll make it if they soldier on.
Fallen Angel were/are a band from Upstate NY, that around the time that this album came out, around 2010, if memory serves me right, consisted of John Cruppe and Robb Lotta on guitars, the latter of which, some might remember from the Belladona (Anthrax’s singer) solo projects. They were pretty interesting, in the fact that they did at the time, unsigned, create an entire concept, recorded the album, wrote the novel and printed it, which also featured a lot of paintings that depicted various scenes from the “book” and also had “personas” and “makeup” to go for their performances. All in all they attempted a rather “intense” and high production value approach for the time, which should have paid off, but unfortunately didn’'t yield any fruits.
The band did sound a lot like an early Iced Earth meets Judas Priest sort of hybrid with vocals that weren’t bad at all, but maybe lacked a bit in versatility and certain identity, that said without being bad per ce just a bit too “sulfury” at times!
Another deciding factor might be that with 20 songs and 68 minutes, but without a “definite” hit single, a video, or a tour, to support themselves, the band, had perhaps spent whatever budget they had on the visual aspect, without then being able to promote what they had created... had “indiegogo” or a similar service of pledging money “for something to be made”, been at their disposal back then, or if it were, at least, popular, maybe they might have “made it”.
The whole concept follows a man’s journey, after a car crash, as he transcends to the afterlife, and then is torn “between” heaven and hell or something “if I remember” the premise of the novel correctly, as it’s been years since I read it! (lol) – Yeah I got the original – There are a few quite impressive numbers like the hard hitting “Darklord” or the ethereal “The Answer” or the quite intense “On and On” and a few more and overall the band tries to go for a grand scope in this… but I suppose, this “early” attempt, has its “flaws”... but one cannot but also praise the band for having the balls to even come up with a concept of this magnitude and not “sucking” magnanimously...
I’m pretty sure, their second “strike/chapter” could be greatly improved… taking into consideration what’s a little wrong with this one… slightly more compact, songs, would not hurt and trying to vary the delivery a bit, would also be nice, I mean Steve Senuik, their singer, can do the “high” stuff, and he can sing melodically too, now if he could gracefully switch between the two more often, it would be nice and help the dynamics within the songs show... because right now the songs were a little “unspectacular” and easy to figure out, the band should try to become a little more adventurous, but without compromising their well-defined identity... just making things a bit more adventurous.
The band currently is comprised of John Cruppe on lead guitar, James Dipinto on lead guitar, Steve Seniuk on lead vocals, Bob Embury on bass and Frankie Quaggs on drums.
Listening back to “Crawling Out of Hell” well I hear an album with a lot of untapped promise and a band that could easily take it to the next level. A band that tries real hard, but just has success escaping through its fingers, I’m sure, they’ll make it if they soldier on.