 
I remember first coming across Flyleaf when they
released a few singles from their debut album
many years ago but it wasn’t until 2008
when they were in the UK supporting Korn on tour
that I started to properly take notice of them
as the nailed the live show and played a good
collection of strong songs, since then Flyleaf
have gone off the radar a bit but are now back
with their third studio album ‘New Horizons’.
The album opens with ‘Fire Fire’ a
song which reminds me exactly why I liked Flyleaf
all those years ago, the song comes blasting at
you with full on energy and passion as front lady
Lacey Strum chants out “fire! fire fire!
fire from the tongues of liars”, the song
features a good mix of heavy riffs but at the
same time also balances on the borders of soft
rock territory but that’s good as this is
what Flyleaf have always been about.
The album title track ‘New Horizons’
is a radio friendly melodic rock n roll track,
it is very soft sounding with Lacey Strum really
laying down her vocals in a beautiful way, it
is the kind of song that most rock fans will frown
upon but on the live circuit it is the kind of
song that would go down really well.
The opening moments of ‘Call You Out’
are fantastic as Lacey Strum goes frantic laying
down her vocals in a hard hitting shouty way and
well she shows that female singers can rock out
as much as male singers can, instrumentally the
song is huge with some massive guitar riffs coming
and going and not to forget the technical sounding
basslines and thumping drum beats.
‘Cage On The Ground’ see’s the
band go all mellow as the riffs are really soft
and slow paced whilst Lacey Strum lets the beauty
of her vocals flow for the best part of 4minutes,
once again the song sounds like it was written
for the live circuit and would epic to witness
with thousands of fans singing-a-long whilst holding
their phones in the air like they do these days.
‘Great Love’ opens like it is going
to be another toned down track yet then the guitars
and drums come in with force as Lacey Strum ups
her game and screams out her vocals of “great
love, setting the world on fire’ with full
on strength, as the song progresses it goes through
the same loop time and time again as the song
builds up with pulsating riffs and forceful shouts
of “great love, setting the world on fire”
before toning down again.
Two of the best tracks on the album are ‘Freedom’
and ‘Green Heart’ the earlier of the
two tracks is really dark, moody and gothic sounding
as the band really go for it in experimental way
whilst the later of the two is full on hectic
affair as the band literally make as much noise
as possible as they go down the metal route with
a twist.
‘New Horizons’ is a very diverse sounding
album which see’s Flyleaf try and cram various
different musical styles and influences in and
it works for the majority of the album, however
the biggest downside I have is that front women
Lacey Strum announced that she was to leave the
band just before the release of the album to concentrate
on family life which you really have to respect
her for, but for the fans of the band they are
never going to hear the songs of ‘New Horizons’
on the live circuit they way they should be played
live and I just hope Flyleaf can continue in the
strong way their fans have come to expect as Strum
leaves behind a massive legacy.
4/5
Review by Trigger
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