BEST SECOND RELEASE 2008 Award Winner!
Runner-Up: This Beautiful Republic (Perceptions).
Honorable Mentions: Family Force 5 (Dance Or Die),
Ruth (Anorak), Leeland (Opposite Way).
Unbreakable gets underway with its lyrically-determined title track. Interestingly, as it shows, Fireflight has moved to a Rock/Hard Rock blend for this album— all of their instruments are actually still played in the Hard Rock style, it’s just not quite as heavy.
“You Gave Me A Promise” continues along this musical line with lyrics of firm hope.
“Brand New Day” begins with dark orchestration, and has low verses contrasted with a rocking chorus and bridge.
“The Hunger” is smoothly rhythmic with a great, appealing guitar line.
Excellent track “Stand Up”, with its heavier music and extremely relatable lyrics, is one of the album’s best.
“Forever” (another excellent track) features softer verses that kick up to solid rock in the emotional and memorable chorus.
“Go Ahead” both opens and closes with a neat pulse effect, and the chorus contrasts driving music with relatively slower, deliberately-sung vocals.
“The Love We Had Before” is musically another heavier track. Unique on this release, it actually contains several lines of lead (instead of backup) vocals from bandmember Justin Cox.
Rhythmic rocker “So Help Me God”— with again very relatable lyrics— is yet another excellent track.
And the final track “Wrapped In Your Arms” starts with only an acoustic guitar underneath the vocals, a few other instruments slowly coming in through the first chorus and second verse. The full rock kicks in suddenly (yet perfectly) in the second chorus, a transition that gave us goosebumps; and then it just as suddenly drops back down to an acoustic guitar for the last few lines.
In all, this is a great second release, and worthy of this Award.
Our rating for Unbreakable: 5 & 1/4 Stars. 