Mutiny Within is the quintessential story of a band who burst onto the melodic metal scene with a ridiculous amount of potential, only to fall victim to some of the common pitfalls that can kill young bands. Soon after beginning work on their sophomore album, a slew of problems, including low sales because of piracy, lineup changes, visa problems, and label issues forced Mutiny Within to call it quits.
Within a couple years, Mutiny Within was back at it releasing two singles. Shortly after that, former singer Chris Clancy announced that he and bassist and songwriter Andrew Jacobs would be finishing the demos of the second unfinished album and releasing it to give fans one final taste of Mutiny Within. The album, titled "Mutiny Within 2 – Synchronicity", was released January 12th of 2013. The immediate and overwhelming positive feedback directly led to the members deciding to reform the band and pursue performing and writing as Mutiny Within again. This announcement was met with as much excitement as the announcement of the second album by the band’s diehard fans. Onto the actual music that makes up the release.
"Mutiny Within 2" is made up of 12 songs that stay very true to the identity of the band that put out of their first CD. The melodies and hooks are strong and prevalent. The guitars are tight, technical and aggressive when they want them to be and melodic and huge at other times.
Bill Fore, another member who departed shortly after the release of the first album and rejoined for the second release, once again brought a solid performance proving he is a talented drummer. Along with the bass playing of Andrew Jacobs, the drumming of Fore yields a solid rhythm section that provides the pulse. The lead work of guitarists Brandon Jacobs and Daniel Bage once again is impressive. They combine to bring plenty of shred with an equal amount of interesting melody. However the strongest performance by far is that of singer Chris Clancy. When Clancy departed because of financial reasons and visa problems, it appeared Mutiny Within would be unable to replace him and unable to carry on. Having Clancy singing on this record completes the signature sound that was crafted on the first release. Incredibly, Clancy has gotten even better at singing. His voice is smoother and more beautiful, his screams are both lower and higher, and his range is even more refined. The melodies he sings are simply beautiful. There are plenty of parts of "Mutiny Within 2" where Clancy’s voice is showcased amazingly and these parts are some of the best of the album. Overall, the music is powerful, catchy and as enjoyable as the first album. The chord progressions are finely crafted. The high expectations for the sophomore release held by many fans seems to be completely met and exceeded based on the public feedback and reviews. The songwriting skills of the band have progressed nicely and this album, though the signature sound still remains, is definitely different than the first release.
The first track on the album, titled "Embers", is actually one of the weaker tracks on the album, though the lyrical content properly sets the stage for thematic elements of the rest of the album – failing, fighting, persevering, and succeeding. After this first track, the songs are fantastic. The tracks 2 through 8 are all unique and amazing in their own rights. While some are more metal oriented, and some lean more towards melodic rock, this group of songs are crafted impressively well. These tracks alone make this album an entirely positive listening experience.
Now for the negatives. "Mutiny Within 2" is a 12 track album. All of these songs are about the same length and structure. This leads to the back end of the album feelings vaguely familiar and repetitive. The last few tracks plod along, through strong by themselves, due to the fact that they offer nothing new. This takes away from these songs greatly. This isn’t that large of a problem though because the cure to this ailment is simple: less songs. The last 3 or 4 songs could have served as bonus tracks or b-sides and the album would have been briefer and held attention spans better. Another issue is repetitiveness. The structure of these songs is too similar. All the songs are around the same length. Each songs features a sung hook laden chorus. Though this is an important part of the Mutiny Within signature sound, a little more variety could only improve on the fantastic music produced by Mutiny Within. This may be attributed to the way this album was written however. A little more songwriting progression could lend to a true modern metal masterpiece. This album also lacks the keyboards that were present on the first album and these are definitely missed. Unfortunately the former keyboardist Drew Stavola was the only member present on Mutiny Within 1 to not rejoin the band for "Mutiny Within 2".
Mutiny Within certainly is at or near the top of the modern melodic metal scene. Though their popularity and success may not yet reflect this, their talent certainly does. "Synchronicity" is at its core another batch of amazing songs by Mutiny Within. Clancy, followed closely by the overall songwriting, is definitely the driving force behind the music and his work made a revival of Mutiny Within possible. Though already releasing very high quality work, Mutiny Within could reach a new peak and separate themselves from the rest of the technical melodic metal pack. However, the potential of the band certainly doesn’t take away from the music that was just released. Overall "Mutiny Within 2 – Synchronicity" gets a fairly strong 7 out of 10.
– Evan Trisolino
