Somebody needs to tell Thousand Foot Krutch that rap-core died with Limp Bizkit and the first couple Linkin Park albums. The California trio’s latest offering, their fifth full-length, Welcome to the Masquerade, opens with a promising track that seems to have a significantly evolved sound. Sadly, it’s a red herring — just an instrumental — and when the vocals kick in on the title track, everything reverts back to the incredibly dated sound that has thus far made them strangely popular.

There are obvious singles on the release like the rap-rock “Fire it Up,” but these are downright terrible and demonstrate no musical progression for the band. Beyond that, however, are several promising tracks that will be undoubtedly overlooked when selecting singles, since they are not what is expected of the band. For instance, the extremely melodic “Look Away,” — a track which shows off the real vocal abilities of Trevor McNevan — is easily one of the best on the album.

As Welcome to the Masquerade progresses from beginning to end you can definitely see a maturity evolve and the rap-rock slowly disappear. Unfortunately, a lot of people won’t even hear these later songs because they will dismiss the album wholesale, after the first couple tracks of the same old sound. But for those who endure, there is definitely progress toward more credible music on this album, and it will be interesting to see what the next record sounds like.

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