The Autumn Offering

“Revelations of the Unsung” (Victory)

Compare to: EndThisDay

REVIEW: 2 / 5

In short: Yeah, OK, they know how to play, but they sure as hell can’t write an interesting song to save their lives.

Say what you will about the “underground” music empire that calls itself Victory Records, but there is no justified way to call them stupid.

The label continually proves that it is as close to its audience as a Siamese twin is to itself.

The bands that call the bulldog’s roster their home are spread across a grand portion of the rock ‘n’ roll spectrum – anything from synth pop to emo to metal to Celtic punk. In almost every case the bands representing their respective genre are proficient at what they do, but seldom are they the genre’s torchbearer. They typically come across as if they write to please the lowest common denominator.

Although Floridian metal quintet The Autumn Offering is Victory’s newest long-haired bunch of headbangers, it is only one of many bands to succumb to the label’s curse of mediocrity.

There are enough thrash parts on their record to prove the band members are probably proud owners of Lamb of God’s “As the Palaces Burn,” enough melody to assume one of the dudes has heard of In Flames and enough breakdowns to suggest they all kind of like Bleeding Through.

Don’t expect anything that suggests the band has a creative mind among them. The Autumn Offering is the kind of band that will appeal to kids who are into Avenged Sevenfold or Atreyu and want music for when they’re trying to justify that they really do like metal when confronted on MySpace by some kid in a Nile shirt.