FortheDrive

ForTheDrive - ForTheDrive

There is a five-piece rock band hailing from Columbus, Ohio, which has had their fair share of luck and success. Sure, things seemed to happen quickly for the band. It was immediately apparent that each individual in the group brought tremendous levels of energy and charisma, as well as having the early inklings of a final lineup established in a matter of days. Sure, the first two singles were written only moments thereafter, bringing an otherwise unknown, yet promising confidence to the group. Beginner's luck, right? This is apparently not the case for the fledgling group called For The Drive.

It was with no doubt that a band with such great potential and talent that the band would quickly come together to record an album. On January 15th, For The Drive's released their self-titled debut album containing eleven tracks of punk influenced hard/rap rock.

Energetic, adrenaline pumping, harmonic and emo-esque are some words to describe the tracks featured on For The Drive's stunning self-titled debut. Their sound could be described as 311 on steroids. The band has various styles in which they exhibit on the album. There's a harmonic, slower rock, yet retro feeling I get when listening to the opening track 'Brushstroke Fantasy' and 'Can't Go To Sleep'. Both have striking similarities to a band I recently had the pleasure of reviewing, Stellar Tuesday. I find myself singing along to the powerful delivery of both vocals and choruses for 'Not Sorry' and my second favorite track on the album 'Refuge'. 'Dreamer' would make an excellent radio single, as the acoustic version featured at the end of the album just accentuates the song's power and melodic sound. The album picks up a lot starting with my favorite track on the album 'Falling Away'. This song itself starts off very slow, but continuously builds up and finally explodes in the last minute and a half of the song. This track would get any crowd on its feet and moving. The energy continues with the heavy guitar riffs, pounding drums and hypnotic vocals of 'Screaming Silent'.

Lead singer Chadd Conkle was found at the bands CD release party quoting T.S. Elliot. : "You are the music, until the music dies". With a front man of a very promising and talented band having this type of mentality, you can tell the level of sophistication that surrounds them. With great musical talent and a reputation for excellent live performances, I can confidently say the band is going places. To call it energy or passion or any similar variation thereof would be far too limited. Call it what it is, destiny in the making.

Rating: 4/5





- themusicappraisal.com

Many of you might not even know who ForTheDrive are, or what style of music they play, well their melodic trend of music will blow you away, trust me on this one. This five-piece hard rock band coming from the heart of Columbus, Ohio bring you their self-titled debut album with 11 powerful hard rocking tracks ready to pound your ears. The guys who bring you For The Drive include Chadd Conkle on Lead Vocals, Rob Smialkowski and J. Michael Taylor on Guitars, Micah Dorward, who was recently replaced by Nathan Ploesser as the band's new bass player, and last but not least, Eddy Hindes on drums. Now enough about the band, let's move on and review this great album shall we.

The album kicks off with a techno like intro, that you would hear on a keyboard or something with a mixture of hard guitar riffs to the song "Brushstroke Fantasy". As soon as Conkle starts singing, you can feel the energy that ForTheDrive have and this track has that little sound effect just making you want to listen to it even more. Next we have "Love Used To Be", a softer song in some parts for example in the verses, then picks it up a notch in the catchy chorus that this song contains. Now we have a song, that I can't just can't get enough of, "Can't Go To Sleep". This song has me bouncing off the walls so to speak. The work done on this song is just amazing, great lyric work by Conkle and great riffs and instrument work by the rest of the band. In case you people didn't get my hint, I don't know why, maybe that this song is catchy to the ears, but its my personal favorite of the entire album, I personally love it, all 4:54 minutes of it. Now we move to a different style of ForTheDrive, well sort of, with their song entitled "Dreamer". This track is a lot more mellow then the rest of the album such as "Refuge", a screamo song that gives you a big rush. "Dreamer", a soft melodic track just to make you take a break from the hard in your face rock that the other tracks contain. If you think this track is softer than the rest, it gets better, we close out with the same track, but with a special touch added to it, the band decided to make an acoustic version of the song. This would be a good song to listen to if you are depressed or something because it is very slow and way different then the rest of the album.

To close out, ForTheDrive aren't done pleasing us fans and they are working very hard to come out with another release very soon and I can't wait for it. If you happen to see this album floating around in your local record store, I recommend that you pick it up and let ForTheDrive show you exactly who they are and what they are trying to prove by making you their next fan. When I first heard the band, I didn't think they had what it took, I listened to one song, and decided to listen to other tracks, and man what a band and album. This independent band are looking for a major label to sign them so if you are reading this, take a listen to this band and let them show you why they are worthy of more in life, by being signed to a top record label and showing their fans that they are here to stay.

Rating: 4.5/5 - the music appraisal