Cover Artwork for Thousand Foot Krutch's new Indie album The End Is Where We Begin
Sadly even though they raised tons via the TFK The End Is Where We Begin Kickstarter campaign, things have not gone smoothly for those who paid some absolutely crazy amounts (14 people pledged over $750!) which was supposed to net them a number of very cool bonuses, including the following: YOUR NAME in the album packaging as a special “Thank You” + 2 VIP backstage passes to show of your choice during Spring tour + 2 front row seats + 2 songs before 1/7/2012 + 2 CDs at the show + 2 Exclusive T-shirts + 2 Signed Limited Edition Posters + 2 TFK bracelets + 2 Live at the Masquerade CD/DVDs.
The album drops April 17th!
If you go through the comments you’ll see that all people have received so far is two downloadable songs, although TFK is promising that they’re backers will still recieve the whole album a week before the April 17th streetdate. However those who were supposed to get backstage passes to a show of their choice did not have that materialize. Hopefully TFK will be able to iron out all the kinks in the machine and pay these people back with an equally as great prize to remedy this, as it is a sour note in what is otherwise a very cool process. And apparently this isn’t the first time that major problems have taken place in Kickstarter campaigns. TFK has also not addressed a lot of the comments directly, which is always a no-no.
Either way, all is well once you hear what TFK has been able to do with the new songs from this album, which are AMAZING. The band even won TEN STRAIGHT matchups between them and other bands (like Trivium) at radio stations such as banana105.com. TEN STRAIGHT Cockfight wins for Thousand Foot Krutch’s Let the Sparks Fly From The End Is Where They Begin. That is quite the feat and proves how absolutely loved this new album is.
I must say that I have been a big TFK fan ever since their first Tooth & Nail album, “Set It Off”, which came out way back in 2000 (the band first formed with frontman Trevor “Teerawk” McNevan way back in 1995, the same year as Korn and a year before Slipknot). I was a big fan of their Sophomore album “Phenomenon” which is what established their modern metal sound and went away from the nu-metal roots of the band which were more hip-hop influenced instead of metal-influenced. Following Phenomon in 2003, TFK had a meteoric rise thanks to songs like Rawkfist which received heavy penetration in both the secular and Christian realms. I was a big fan of their follow-up record as well, called “The Art of Breaking” released in 2005. However once the follow-up to that album hit, 2007’s “The Flame in All of Us”, they managed to lose me. I did not find the album a standout and it was a big disappointment from me compared to their previous work. I never listened to their previous album, 2009’s Welcome to the Masquerade, so I am only now returning to heavy interest in the band with their Indie debut.
If you’ve never heard of TFK before, here are five of their most standout tracks in my humble opinion.
“Rhime Animal” off their Tooth & Nail major label debut album “Set It Off”.
This CD really established their hip-hop-influenced “nu-metal” sound, although it’s quite a bit different than other bands of the era like P.O.D. or Linkin’ Park.
While “Set It Off” featured a lot of rap style on it, it also featured heavier songs like “Puppet”.
Sizlin’ ain’t it? Man these songs take me back! After Set It Off, TFK went into a much more metal-fused direction that was very similar to Linkin Park’s first major label album “Hybrid Theory”, except without all the teenage secular angst. That album still featured the quick-spittin’ vocals but with a much less rap-sounding flare. And none of the hip-hop style scratchin’ and the like.
But before that, here is another great Set It Off track called Supafly that really showed their female-loved slower, romantic side while still bringing the heavy. This is the song that, IMHO, truly birthed Trevor’s side-project band, FM Static, which followed TFK’s second major-label album Phenomenon, and was a CD full of tracks that were similar to Supafly’s style and didn’t deviate into heavy-sounding territory.
Before we end, I want to post one more song, this track is called “Small Town” and is arguably my favorite song from Set It Off. It truly proves TFK’s master of their craft and the fact they are great song writers that can write moving pieces as well as heavy ones.
A lot of these tracks were also released in different versions as TFK “enhanced” them when they re-released Set It Off with a remastered disc on Tooth & Nail Records following Phenomenon, which also contained many additional new tracks. I much prefer the original versions however.
Here is Small Town from Set It Off.
So now we gotta move onto Thousand Foot Krutch’s Sophomore major-label album (their second album on Tooth & Nail Records) Phenomenon and you will see the DRASTIC change in style. Many people loved their song style in Set It Off, but you have to admit that they are BANGING just as hard as anyone on Phenomenon, and kick as much ass as Linkin Park ever did, without sounding extremely derivative lyrically (IMHO). Alright so first off let’s check out the title song from Phenomenon.
Now we have the song Bounce, my favorite track from Phenomenon and a song that is arguably even heavier than the title track, but just as badass! You’ll be hard pressed not to rock out with this track.
Next up we have the song that arguably made TFK famous, and that’s the track RAWKFIST off of Phenomenon. This is a song that got HEAVY airplay and really turned heads all around. The track was a rocker with the best of them and an anthem for our generation that rocked the socks off anyone that heard it. It was picked up by many sports media, for racing like NASCAR, wrestling like the WWE, and much more that gave the band tons of exposure. Here’s the official music video.
Now i’ll play a lesser known but favorite track of mine from Phenomenon, this song is called “New Design”. I absolutely LOVE this song. The part where they absolutely ROCK OUT near the end is my favorite.
Honestly its REALLY REALLY hard for me to not just post the entire freakin’ album, it’s so good. Let’s do two more songs. This song is called “Quicken” and it’s one of the best.
Last but not least, this is the lone “slow song” out of the entire Phenomenon album of twelve tracks. This song is called “This Is A Call” and it’s a beautiful song, just like “Small Town”.
Okay I had to post one more, LAST AND LAST is Ordinary, by far one of their heaviest tracks from the album with incredible lyrics. I love the “SHAKE IT OFF, SHAKE IT OFF” part. :D
So this is where TFK really made their name, with the above tracks. IMHO proceeding albums weren’t as good or as impactful, although there are a number of standout tracks from Phenomeon’s follow-up, The Art of Breaking from 2005.
Arguably my favorite track from The Art of Breaking is called “Hurt”, and I absolutely love the quotes from this song.
Another one of my favorite tracks from The Art of Breaking is this song, called “Hand Grenade”. This song proves that it’s all about how you sing the lyrics to TFK, which is not something many bands can boast about IMHO.
The next two albums, the latter I haven’t heard at all, and the former I wasn’t a big fan of. I’ll post two from each, all of this should give you a great idea of how TFK has progressed over the two decades. Hopefully I’ve opened you up to the band, you definitely owe it to yourself to go pick up their previous albums, they’re one of the titans of the Christian music industry. :D
I think this song is my favorite from The Flame In All Of Us, it’s called “INHUMAN”. And it’s a rocker, although you’ll notice that they morphed into a band with a much more mainstream rock sound. If I listen to the whole album again I’d probably like it a lot more, but there were no real standout tracks to me. Although often times it takes a lot of listens before I really grow on an album so… I need to go back to this before their next album, The End Is Where We Begin, drops!
This song is called New Drug from The Flame In All of Us. It’s also rockin’.
Last but not least, this is one of their singles from The Flame In All of Us called “Falls Apart” and here is the music video.
Here’s the final song I’ll post from their last album, “Welcome to the Masquerade”, which is the only album from the band (outside of their early non-Tooth & Nail stuff) that I haven’t heard.
This song mixes the intro to the album called “The Invitation” as well as the title song “Welcome to the Masquerade”, with scenes from the Wachowski Bros. film V For Vendetta. Really loving what I’m hearing, gotta cop this album!
