After 2008′s successful A Call To Arms, Long Island, New York’s Christian crusaders Letter To The Exiles are back with ten new songs of passion and faith in The Shadow Line. Being in a genre that is so saturated at the moment, will Letter To The Exiles follow the leader or cross the proverbial line in the sand to truly standout?

The classically driven “Prelude” opens the album up in super dramatic form. Beautifully crafted piano is layered perfectly with dark ambient backdrops that sounds like it could be taken from 300 or Clash Of The Titans. “Oh Holy Dread!” sheds light on Letter To The Exiles’ melodic, yet abrasive sound. If you’re into bands like Unearth, As I Lay Dying and Heaven Shall Burn then Letter To The Exiles should be right up your alley. They combine dueling melodic guitars, bruising skins, ultra low-end thump and gut wrenching vocals. Overall, the album starts out pretty strong with its chugging riffs, brutal vocals and solid breakdowns; problem is, I just feel like I’ve been here SO many times before.

If you need to get your face-melting fix on, then check out tracks like “It’s Never Safe To Dream”, ” Threnody” and “You’re Not Going To Seduce Anyone.” With its very Heaven Shall Burn/At The Gates style melodic guitar mangling and super throaty screams in “It’s Never Safe To Dream”, you can tell that these guys are very talented at what they do. “Threnody” features some killer six string madness that Buz McGrath and Ken Susi (Unearth) would salivate over. The song does feel rather repetitive as it moves along, but still, it’s a pretty solid track that is worth mentioning. “You’re Not Going To Seduce Anyone” incorporates blasting double bass, multi-layered guitars, deafening bass, blistering vocals and the ever present chunky breakdown. The song really does a good job at integrating different elements of hardcore, metalcore and even deathcore into the mix.

One thing that I found interesting was producer Robert “Void” Caprio’s (Megadeth, The Fray, Eve 6, Public Enemy) knob work. For a guy who has worked with such big names, the album’s production comes off muddy, watered down and nothing really special. Bands of this ilk need a very solid and slickly produced album to make them standout from the masses. Sadly, I just don’t feel that Letter To The Exiles have that with The Shadow Line, and therefore won’t separate themselves from the pack.

I must give the band props on their incredible message of faith and love. In a world that is full of anger and hatred towards religion in general, Letter To The Exiles stand tall proclaiming their undying commitment to their faith in Christ. But unfortunately, the jury is still out on The Shadow Line. There were times where I felt that I could skip to random portions in songs finding the same breakdowns/sections over and over again. In the end, the album does have some really cool moments that will peak your interest, but more that will give you that déjà vu feeling all over again.

3.0/5