Kingcrimsonprog By the time that Flaw released their second studio album Endangered Species in mid 2004, the Nu Metal wave had mostly dried up and the Metal Media were looking elsewhere for things to praise, as a critical mass of ill-feeling towards the genre made it an incredibly unfashionable thing to openly enjoy.

This, combined with reports that the band were rushed by their record company into releasing the album before it was ready, as well as reducing the heaviness of the guitar and vocals lead to many negative reviews and to the widespread ignoring or disapproval of the album by the public.

I think this was really rather unfortunate because Endangered Species is a completely enjoyable fifty minutes of well constructed, well produced and well performed music, from a greatly under-appreciated band who came out to late in a genre that was too overcrowded.

Endangered Species is unarguably a lot less heavy than their debut studio album Through The Eyes, with more melodic tracks and less screaming. If this is a problem, then by all means don't pick up the album. If however you really enjoy Chris Volz's clean vocals on Through The Eyes or with his other bands, then this is definitely an album that you should give a chance.

What the material lacks in heaviness, it does compensate adequately with emotive sections, an enjoyable and easily digestible formula and strong vocal performances. Occasionally they even wear their Tool influences on their sleeve for a few bars and create something interesting before returning to the aforementioned formula.

Standout tracks include the opener `Medicate' which is probably the closest track in style to the band's debut album, as well as the melodic `All The Worst' and the album closer `Not Enough.'

Of course, at the end of the day the album still is a Nu Metal album that came out long after all the genre's creators had made their definitive albums and that much can never change. If you don't like the genre at all or if you are only interested in the big radio tracks that are still played today then this won't give you what you are looking for.

Overall though, while Endangered Species is not the greatest album ever recorded, it is certainly nowhere near as bad as you may have heard and if you want more music from Flaw or Chris Volz don't let the negative reputation it has put you off from giving it a fair chance.

I personally enjoyed the album a lot, and provided that you aren’t the sort of person who will see the Nu Metal tag as instant evidence of poor quality, you may indeed enjoy it too.

Kingcrimsonprog Flaw were one of the most underrated and talented bands to arise during the Nu Metal era, releasing their exceptional major label debut Trough The Eyes in 2001 and falling into obscurity and disbanding after their second major label album Endangered Species.

This third album was independently released by the band in 2009. As such the recording quality isn't as high as their major label Universal Records albums and the packaging isn't as elaborate, but don't let that stop you giving the album an honest and fair listen.

Singer Chris Voltz still has the strong voice and lyrical quality to make Flaw sound both impressive and stylistically enough like you remember them, even if the line up shifts, modern playing and lower quality production job do make Homegrown Studio Sessions sound very different to the earlier albums.

The album as a whole isn't exactly the best material ever released under the Flaw name, however there is still enough high quality material on offer to warrant serious consideration from Flaw fans. Some of the tracks are very strong, such as 'Concealed,' 'Alive Again,' and especially album closer 'Blood Red Sky.'

Overall; this isn't exactly the same style or quality as you would hope for, but still is worth checking out not only to support the band, but also in its own right.

Kingcrimsonprog To my ears, it is a real shame that Flaw never broke big in the same way that bands like Disturbed and Linkin Park did. Perhaps there were myriad business and promotional reasons why this album wasn’t a world beating success, perhaps the buying public had just become sick of this style of music by the time this record was released.

Artistically at least, this album really feels like a lost classic. The songwriting, production and powerful performances are of a caliber normally reserved for the best any genre has to offer. Sure ‘Nu Metal,’ became a negative term in many people’s eyes but the fact of the matter is that, regardless of anything else, no matter how you choose to name it or how popular it is with the magazines, good music will always be good music.

For me, Through The Eyes by Flaw is just that, good music. An exciting collection of interesting and well written songs that have remained good in my opinion for almost a decade. Nothing on the album feels particularly dated, I don’t listen to this for nostalgia or as genre fodder. I still listen to this after all these years because it is just that good. Songs like ‘Best That I Am’ and ‘My Letter’ have a large emotional weight that you don’t expect from a band on their debut and there are still enough hard sections to make it fun and pleasant; rather than a self flagellating listening experience, wallowing in unnecessary misery.

Singer Chris Volz has a really strong singing voice and doesn’t get the credit he deserves, having talents almost unrivaled among his closest contemporaries. It is almost a shame when he has to shout, scream or rap just because his singing voice is so good. A far cry from some other singers who insist on dropping in clean vocals they aren’t really proficient enough to carry off.

In terms of musical style I can’t really give Flaw a big sell that will convince you to drop everything and check them out. They play that late 90s/early noughties Nu Metal/Alterative Metal with vaugely progressive tendencies that everyone decided they were suddenly too cool to listen to when metalcore thankfully brought back guitar solos and double kicks. I’ve never understood why people can’t just like both, music constantly goes in short periods of reactionary changes and people seem to take a stand on one side or another and subsequently loose out on all the wonderful listening opportunities available to the open minded who try both sides. Flaw may play a style you don’t like, but they play it so well that they deserve a chance at least.

To summarise; this album may not make it into the history books as one of the most important albums that the noughties had to offer, but you’d be hard pressed to believe that for the forty or so minutes you spend listening to it.