Album Reviews : The Butterfly Effect – Final Conversations of Kings

The Butterfly Effect are one of Australias most popular rock bands. From 2001’s debut self titled EP which hit the airaves of Triple J, to the epic sounds of 2003’s Begins Here, to the hard rocking tried and tested ‘Imago‘.
‘Final Conversations of Kings‘, the bands third album, has been quite divisive in the short time since its release. Its a fucking great album. Yet somehow there are people out there who struggle to see this! Some people just dont want bands to change. They want this band to play the same music.. over and over again. If they want to listen to something different, they have another band that can fill that void. It must be hard to please everyone!

The album is still hard hitting! But its lost some of the harder edges from the previous releases, for something more beautiful. The first half especially is like sex on a CD. I’m not trying to say its sexy, but damn it comes close to an aural orgasm.

Final Conversation.. opens with the bands longest track to date: ‘Wolrds on Fire‘. From a slow build up, to something heavy and yet so emotive, over a 7 minute time period.. its such an epic track to open the album with. Its still got The Butterfly Effect written all over it, but throw in something more progressive, and thats where we are at.

From the best track of the album so far, Final Conversations only picks up with ‘Room without a View‘ and it suddenly takes over ‘Worlds on Fire’ as the highlight of this album! They have an awesome ability to write music thats rocks, but isnt some generic shit. Its rock that can move you. That might sound a little gay, but fuck its good! The riffs are heavy, and the vocals are some of Boge’s best.

The albums attempt at a title track, Final Conversations, follows in the progressive nature that the album has started with, but features a slightly more pop tinge. These tracks so far feature awesome chorus’s, and the versus are up there aswell, with nothing feeling forced, it just flows brilliantly. I get the feeling this track could feature over some emotive seen in a shitty US teen drama.. which sounds nothing like a compliment, but I am trying for one!! Three track in.. can it get any better?

Why yes it can! The Way, is just.. well.. have a listen and you’ll see what i’m talking about! Featuring a hectic beginning, featuring the odd trumpet, and electronic sample, building up to the chorus.. only to fade out again. Fucking tease! This time when it builds back up again there is no holding back! The chorus is just amazing! The best thing they have written. Final. Its what you would listen to at church for those who dont have a religion. Its just awesome, moving rock. They dont go for hard hitting on this chorus.. just moving, emotive music and vocals. Highlight of the album. End of Story.

Window and the Watcher, the albums first single, is up next. When I first heard this track I wasnt innitially convinced. I’d kind of grown tired of this band. Imago, while not being a bad album, brought nothing new to the table, and I feared these guys had lost their spark. Listening to it now again, it really is a great track, showing these guys can still rock!

If this was a 5 track ep, and it ended here, I would give it a 9.75/10! it would lose .25 only cos i’d want it to be longer!

Unfortunately it isnt an EP, and that aural orgasm that is the first five tracks on this CD, just cant be maintained. Maybe this is just to show that they are only humas afterall?

…And the promise of truth starts the second half of this album. The track is a mellow rocker, featuring a horn section and other experimental elements from the guys. A good track, but nothing on the first 5. In These Hands picks up the pace, with the guitars sounding out of place from the preceeding tracks. It sounds like they were going for a new sound on the album, but just missed it. Would have been a good track on Imago, but with the quality on here, it just sits below all the rest.

7 Days kicks off the final three tracks of the album, of which all are mellow rockers. The track picks up again at the chorus, being the redeeming factor on this otherwise kinda bland song. Rain, the penultimate track on the album, comes off sounding like a something that would be sung while we ‘pray for rain‘ as Howard urged us to do a year and a half ago. It feels a little try hard, like a cover band attemptionmg to write a Butterfly Effect song. Sum of 1 comes off as a slow rocker, a power ballad. I wasn’t a fan of this track live, it was a bad choice to finish the concerts on, and I am not a huge fan of it on the record either. The slow build up goes right to the end, where it features a short heavy section, before its all over.

At 10 track the album isn’t over flowing, which is a shame, as it could have done with the odd song being trimmed to create an absoulte classic from the boys from brisbane, but if that had happened, it would probably suffer from being too short. Hard to please everyone. But The Butterfly Effect have come as close as they have managed yet to the perfect album, with especially the first half being absoultely flawless in every note. Despite the odd track being below par, a contender for album of the year still!

9/10

Band: The Butterfly Effect
Album: Final Conversations Of Kings
Year: 2008
Genre: Rock/Prog Rock
Label: Roadshow Music
Origin: Brisbane, QLD
www.myspace.com/thebutterflyeffectau

Tracklisting:
Worlds on Fire
Room Without a View
Final Conversations
The Way
Window and the Watcher
…And the Promise of the Truth
In these Hands
7 Days
Rain
Sum of 1