Customer Reviews

Through the Eyes (Clean)

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If there's one thing I enjoy, it's finding music by accident. I stumbled upon Fear Factory and Machine Head that way, and became a faithful listener after taking a shot in the dark.

The accident that got me to buy Flaw's "Through The Eyes" was an interesting one. I had been watching MTV (I know, I know) recently, and lamenting the continued demise of Headbanger's Ball what with all the good metal bands that are out nowadays. Lo and behold, I'm watching the late-night show called "Extreme Rock", and this band just nails my feet to the floor, freezes my channel-surfing finger, and makes my brain leak out my ears.

Flaw's "Whole" was the first song I heard, and it made my hair stand on end. Chris Volz's voice is surely trained for opera or other classic singing styles, as he is melodic and can hit notes from low to high with impunity. The voice is only part of the attack, however, as Volz's lyrics mirror those of Staind's Aaron Lewis in their honesty, simplicity, and emotion. The band's polished talent rounds out the sound, creating music that grooves at times, trudges at times, but is always exciting.

There are no bad songs on this album, but my favorites are "Whole," "Only the Strong," "Amendment," "My Letter," and "What I have to do." Every song features Volz's vocals as the centerpiece, and his astonishing range is punctuated by guttural screams and the occasional rapped section. While I would not classify Flaw as rap-rock, I think they dabble successfully in that area.

Overall this is a talented musical combo whose sound is led and carried by an amazing singer. I think fans of Tool, Staind, and Sevendust would like this record, and I urge the rest of you to at least listen to the sample of "Whole" on this website. I guarantee you'll be hooked in.

I remember, the first time I heard Flaw almost two years ago right before Christmas of 03. I was quite sick with the flu and laying down watching music choice Metal (channel 410) My jaw dropped to the floor. The song playing was "Only The Strong" which is still one of my favorite songs of all time. Which was quite suprising being that by that time I was mostly into melodic death metal/ black metal and thrash metal ( Cradle of Filth, Emperor, In Flames, At The Gates,Dark Tranquility and Opeth for a few examples). However, there was just something about the lyrics and vocals and such that I loved. I didn't actually buy the cd until the Summer of 04. When I did though, you better believe I listened to it day and night. Chris' singing just seems powerful and incredible, one of the best vocalist I have heard in a while. Also, he doesn't go down to the level of having lame new age metal lyrics like " I'll break your face if you look at my girlfriend." or corny things such as that. They're well thought out.



Only The Strong - 1000/10 As I said before, this is one of my favorite songs of all time. The lyrics really hit home for me and i feel a true attachment to this one. Best song here.

Payback - 9/10 Starts out with a nice bassline then the drums and distorted guitars kick in. One of the heavier tracks here.

My Letter - 10/10 Great ballad type song, the vocals in here are just powerful. Can't get enough.

Get Up Again - 10/10 One of the best songs here, the lyrics seem to have a real reflective feel to them.

Whole - 10/10 A great metal track, I love the lyrics in them. Just the way Chris sings them, you can feel the emotion.

Amendment - 9/10 Starts out slow but as the song goes on it begins to get heavier. Goes inbetween near screams and singing.

Scheme - 8/10 ALOT of distorted guitars here, the drumming is the best on the album here.


What I Have to do - 10/10 has a real " My Letter" feel to it, which is great. the vocals in the chorus are just incredible.

Inner Strength - 9/10 starts out with a single guitar riff and grows into a beast with the help of Chris' vocals.

Best I am - 10/10 From the first secodns of the guitar melodies I knew this was going to be a great ballad.

Out of Whack - 8.5/10 I know, lame song title. I thought it might be a lame angst song, I guessed wrong.

Reliance - 9/10 While most of the focus on this album is on the vocals, the guitar/drum section takes over here.


One More Time - 9/10 Good closing song, starts out with some low drum work and some awesome singing. Ending on a strong note.


So, to end this. I don't care what metal you like. This one deserves a spot in your collection, Enjoy.

first off, i have to say this is one of the most amazing debut cds in recent memory. i think all the songs are soild, driving songs with strong emotions and guitars.

unlike most bands, FLAW is very versitale in their sound. they can punish you with blistering guitars and booming drums one minute, then soothe you with beautiful harmonies and melodies. the drums are killer. the bass is crazy. the guitars are brutal. the vocals are so deeply ranged. its a great group.

Check Out: "amendmant" "my letter" "scheme" "out of whack" and "payback"

sounds like: Mudvayne x Tool + Staind.

This cd is excellent. In a genre of music where almost every CD sounds the same, Flaw blew everybody else away with this one. Easily one of the best CD's of the decade so far.

The CD starts off with "Only The Strong", a number with a heavy riff that showcases Chris Volz's excellent voice. Volz has one of the most beautiful singing voices I've ever heard, and combines it with some screaming at times. The second track and first single "Payback" is an example of this, as Volz's screaming during the chorus is awesome, and adds a lot of energy to the track. Then we get to the albums BEST song, and one of the best songs I've ever heard. "My Letter". It's amazing, driven by emotionally charged lyrics, and stayed stuck in my head for months after the first time I heard it. Easily the best song Flaw has done, and obviously the best on the album. "Whole" is another emotional song lyrically, and is pretty good, though not their best. "Amendment" is my 2nd favorite on here, it's got extremely heavy riffs and verses, followed by a beautiful bridge which ends with a screamed obscenity ('We're the recipients of hate, motherf***er'). It gave me chills the first time I heard it, its awesome. Also of note, "Amendment" is over 5 minutes in length. Not many new metal bands pull off songs over 4 minutes, or write songs this well. "Scheme" is another great heavy song. "Best I Am" is a slower ballad, very well written. "Reliance" is a very pissed-off song that rocks hard, and "One More Time" is a great closer with some good lyrics. But it's not the end. There's the hidden track version of "Only The Strong" which is just Chris Volz singing the song with a piano in the background. It's beautiful, and contrasts the heavy version that the CD starts with perfectly. So overall, this is an amazing CD, one of the best ever in my opinion. I'd recommend it to anybody and everybody (and if you're still not interested in buying the album, at least check out "My Letter" or "Amendment"). 10/10 for sure.

God I love this CD. I first saw Flaw play with Sevendust in a small club in Cincinnati and was [mad] that I didn't get to see their full set. If the 2nd opening act (Gravity Kills) didn't [STUNK], Sevendust would have had a hard time following Flaw. This band has a unique style that's not readily apparent on first listen. Think about this, how do you make yourself distinct in a world with a thousand new (nu?) metal bands popping up everywhere. There's no scratching or DJ work here (thank god), just amazing melodies, fantastic, crushing riffs, great song structure and two complimentary voices. I don't think Flaw has even hit their peak yet, Through the Eyes will be seen as a classic in a few years once the Hoobastanks and Linkin Parks dissapear. Chris' lyrics are incredibly deep and complex and you can feel the genuine pain and anguish in his work. BUY THIS CD

While a lot of people hear the first few seconds of this album and immediately group Flaw in with all the other worthless "nu-metal" junk, this album, while very cleanly produced, is a unique and generally pleasing listening experience. A lot of people dismiss this band so quickly as being "just another angry band," but really very few songs on this album are overtly aggressive. Most songs involve fairly complicated melodies and feature a very pleasant-sounding lead singer - a lot of people think he's trying to be Maynard from Tool, but I just don't hear it...though there are several bands out there blatantly ripping them off. Anyway, this is one of the most enjoyable albums I've bought recnetly. I buy very little "nu-metal" - only that in which I can find some unique quality that separates it from the other trash out there. Bands like Flaw, Lifer, and Ill Nino, to me anyway, exemplify what is good about "nu-metal"...something that really boils down to opinion, but if you're just going to give bands liks Flaw one star, what do you give the bands that have no talent, can't sing, and can't write lyrics? If 3 stars is average, Flaw easily rises above that distinction.

It's a shame that bands like Flaw tend to go unrecognised, overshadowed by the more popular mainstream artists who seem to mill out new CDs every few months. In fact, I never would've run across this band if not for one small strong hidden in the massive soundtrack of an XBox game called "Payback."

Two years later, I finally purchased my first heavy metal album, and was not disappointed. Flaw delivers in every aspect of the genre, and goes beyond it.

The lead singer, Chris, offers the most effective lyrics I've ever heard from any band, and delivers them with a haunting, melodic voice. While most bands in this style tend to focus on screaming, Chris provides a perfect emotional setting to the album, and is backed by bass player Ryan, who does most of the backdrop screaming. This combination works very well, and throughout the album "Through the Eyes," they alternate through a mix of mourmful melody and angered screaming, all of which suits the songs they're playing very well.

Only The Strong - 9.5: The opening song gives a good feel for what the rest of the album is like, mixing Chris's melodic voice with heavy guitar chords and metal-style screaming. Only The Strong has very powerful lyrics and an awesome chorus. Overall it's a consistently enjoyable track.

This song does take some getting used to before you can appreciate just what it's about. Once you learn the lyrics it becomes a whole lot better.

Payback - 9.0: One of the heavier tracks on the album, Payback was the album's first single and was also the song that first got me hooked. While it's awesome to listen and sing along to, "Payback" isn't as deep as most of the songs on the album and goes a little clumsy on the lyrics. Nonetheless, it makes for an awesome debut track with its heavier chords and screaming in the chorus.

As a point of interest, Payback is one of the three songs on the album in which Ryan swears - in this case, he says the F word six times. Not for little children.

My Letter - 9.75: Owing to the purely melodic vocals and lighter chords of the song, you'd be right to guess that "My Letter" is one of the more emotive songs on the album. You can get into this one right away. Chris wrote the song for his daughter, and it was enough to convince me that he's a very brave and intelligent person. This song is near-perfect.

Get Up Again - 9.25: A short but powerful song, "Get Up Again" can also be found on the xXx album. It's fast-paced and features a very unique structure, with two verses followed up by the chorus repeated twice before the song ends. It's a fresh approach and works quite well. The lyrics are also great to learn.

Whole - Perfect: This song ranks as my tenth favourite song of all time, thus earning the rare perfect 10/10 rating. "Whole" is a song about Chris's stepmother and how her suicide affected him while he was only twelve years old. Whole is a song etched with pain, and promotes Chris as a very admirable person to have pulled through it. Not only are the lyrics incredible, but the guitar chords portray the confusion and pain he must have felt perfectly. It's rare to hear something on this scale.

Flaw had a film clip made for this song. If you can find it, watch the whole thing. It's very artistic and, like the song itself, delivers how Chirs would've felt about the event and causes you to feel it yourself.

Amendment - 9.25: This song has both a great introduction and ending. While the intro builds into the rest of the song, the ending provides a feeling of anger and justification. Ryan screams, "That's right yeah with your five second morales and your three second smile!"

Scheme - 9.5: Scheme leads in from Amendment, and it's also one of the heaviesst songs in the album. Considering its fast pace and its chorus, there's no wonder that I'm already addicted to it. Ryan screams in a rap-rock style, then joins in with Chris as he shouts, "You START TO RECOGNISE, you're in the game..." It portrays life as a rat race, one that we don't enjoy.

What I Have To Do - 9.25: One of the lighter songs in the album, "What I Have To Do" takes some getting used to. It's got an excellent chorus and overall is a very good song. After the heavier songs of "Amendment" and "Scheme," it returns to the melodic nature of the album and works quite well at it.

Inner Strength - 9.0: This song is similar to "What I Have To Do," though it has a faster pace and a different theme. Surprisingly, it's one of the very few optomostic songs Flaw performs, and it bases itself around hope - turning the cruel system we live in around and, in the words of Chris, putting it in jail.

Best I Am - 9.0: This is another light song, though I don't feel it quite compares to the rest of the album in that it comes across as a little ordinary, repetitive and same old. This doesn't stop it from being an awesome song once you get down to it, but the point is that once you've heard the rest of the album, you've already heard "Best I Am."

Out of Whack - Perfect: Ranked as my fifth favourite song of all time, "Out of Whack" is therefore my favourite Flaw song ever, and for a good reason. I first heard the longer demonstration version, and they've only imporved on it. The first two verses are far superior to what they used to be, including an extra layer of guitar chords and better vocals. Perhaps the best part of this song is the bridge, which combines some of the best lyrics ever with a perfectly mystical combination of electric guitars and harmonic instruments. Chris cries out, "Are we all born wrong?"

Flaw actually strimmed down the bridge sequence of this song, which at first I didn't like all that much, but in the end I realised it actually imrpoves the pacing of the song and only improves on what was already a masterpiece.

Reliance - 8.75: This is the heaviest track on the album, and while it's quite enjoyable to listen to for its enraged vocals and lyrics, it does also suffer for it a little. Reliance seems to be a song about a marriage he doesn't want to go through with. Ryan takes over the vocals for this song, which gives a very heavy-metal approach to the song. While I appreciate this and think it's quite a good song, at the same time, "Reliance" doesn't strike me as Flaw's best simply because it's a little too generic.

Before they released their albums, Flaw had a series of unreleased songs. Reliance sounds quite a bit like those songs, and if you can dig them up anywhere you'll know what I'm talking about.

One More Time - 9.5: A slow song which improved vastly on the original demo version, giving it more of an emotive feeling, especially towards the end. This is one of those songs that needs to be heard to be appreciated.

Only The Strong (Hidden Track) - 9.5: This song is bascially Only The Strong played on the piano, so of course it's the lightest track on the album. It gives a great new outlook on an already excellent song, and it's a welcome break from the heavy guitar chords throughout the rest of the album. The piano here is peaceful yet haunting, perfect for the lyrics of Only the Strong.

Flaw's first album is perhaps one of their best, but since 2001 they've also released Endangered Species, broken up and reformed under the name Five.Bolt.Main, which just released the album Venting. If you like what you've heard so far, be sure to check the rest of their music out. It can only get better.

Flaw's debut release, "Through The Eyes", is easily one of my favorite albums of all time. After hearing the song, "Payback", I was hooked. Once you pop the CD in the player you'll discover such songs as, "Scheme", "Whole", "Only The Strong", and "Ammendment". If you are a fan of Hard Rock, you are doing an injustice to yourself everyday that you dont buy this CD.

Flaw-Through The Eyes is a very beautifully crafted album. Combining great guitar riffs and catchy drum beats with an unmistakable lead vocalist, Chris Volz, this album aims to please head-bangers ears. Even better, this album is not straight up play it loud until your ears bleed internally, it also has more melodramatic and melodical slower songs. In another review, the reviewee compares Flaw to Slipknot. Althought Slipknot is a forerunner in the death metal/speed metal what have you genre, Flaw does not compare to that particular category. Both melodic and raw and virtually error free this is for those who appreciate metal with a purpose. Chris Volz, lead vocalist, underwent psychotherapy treatments after his mother had died...giving him a look into the world of the neglected, unloved, lonely, and all the things that "nu" metal focuses on. This, in turn, gives Flaw something to sing about in their songs, real pain, real loneliness, real hate and so on so forth. Lyrically, this album is superb..though the drawn out vocals at times can get repetitive, this album delivers on all fronts. I simply cannot express my liking for this album. Sample these songs if you are wondering what you are getting into when purchasing this album: Only The Strong, Payback (if you have never heard it), My Letter, Whole, Best I Am...just to name a few. Happy Listening!

One night, I was closing up the store I work in (a music store) and found a used copy of this CD sitting in the "Trade-Ins" box. (Now, I'm not sure why someone would get rid of this.) Anyway, I'd never heard of them, so I just threw it in the CD player to have something to listen to while I closed. I was blown away, I liked it instantly. Once I heard the song "Payback", I knew I was gonna take the album home with me that night. I like a lot of bands who have the heavy/melodic sound, but these guys take it to the extreme. One minute, they're jamming out metal on their thunderous guitars while the singer screams hard and passionate...and then they'll slip into something very melodic and beautiful. The singer sounds like the singer of Disturbed (when he sings) and the singer of Deftones (when he screams). This was one of my favorite CDs of it's year, and I can't wait for a second album. If you need to hear samples, check out "Payback", "My Letter", "Whole" and "Scheme". ALL of the songs are amazing though. I promise that if you like Deftones, Disturbed, Cold or Staind's heavier stuff, you WILL in fact love this album!