'The Last Dance' is quite possibly the best album that 40 Below Summer has ever put out, which is quite ironic considering it is potentially their swan song album. While it's great to see a band that is going on indefinate hiatus release an album of all new material as opposed to some sort of typical "Greatest Hits" album, or "Rarities and B-sides", they don't have enough of their own sound to leave a lasting impression.
Album opener 'New Age Slaves" come in with some good doses of aggression, mixed in with some cool melodies, but comes off sounding like a little too much like a cross between Ill Nino and Mudvayne. Vocalist Max Illidge can definitely scream his ass off, and the layered growls are a nice addition to the band's overall sound. And while his cleans are good as well, he sounds a little too much like Chad Gray (Mudvayne) for his own good.
"It's About Time" and "It's So Easy" have that sort of 'southern rock' riff going on, and musically bring to mind Jason Jones era Drowning Pool, and even SOiL to a degree, while other songs like "Tell Me Now", "Relapse", and the albums closing track "Cut In Half" slow things down considerably. Unfortunately, on these slower tracks the comparisons come back with a vengeance, as "Relapse" immediately brings to mind Mudvayne's "World So Cold", and "Cut In Half" actually sounds at times like some of the more recent material from Nu Metal maintstays Disturbed, mixed in with a bit of Breaking Benjamin.
"Anxiety 101" is probably the albums best track, with a pretty sick guitar groove and a catchy as hell chorus that will stick in your head after even just one listen. This is also the one song where 40 Below Summer doesn't sound exactly like any band other than themselves, and that is definitely a good thing.
With the death of the Nu Metal genre (excepting a few mainstays), 40 Below Summer quite possibly would have ended up breaking up anyway, due to nothing more than their previous choice of musical direction becoming stale and ultimately unmarketable. Add to that the fact that they were never a huge name in the scene to begin with, and it's almost guaranteed they wouldn't have lasted without a complete revamping of their sound and style. And while the new album stylistically is not too far removed from the trappings of Nu Metal, it has enough of an overall rock feel to it to save it from being specifically classified as such.
