The second full-length by North Carolina screamo act
Alesana
finds the sextet inching ever closer to the mall punk mainstream. Where the pretentiously titled debut,
On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax
, was focused primarily on lead singer
Dennis Lee
's forced screams and growls, the more commercially minded
Where Myth Fades to Legend
makes far greater use of the band's clean vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist
Shawn Milke
, whose appealingly whiny voice is more suited to the hooks-and-riffs songwriting that predominates here. Simply on that basis, the album is an improvement over their debut, and
is conceivably of interest to some subset of the
Vans Warped Tour
crowd. ~ Stewart Mason