|
 |
Funeral For A FriendCasually Dressed & Deep In Conversation Infectious/Warners You already know this is serious. The band name and album title give that away before you've heard a note. It's the sort of record that you don't merely listen to, but explore for the first clutch of listens. And importantly, it keeps you coming back for more. This five-piece from Wales have delivered a debut that demands your attention. It's a restless kind of musicality, characterised by insistent, trebly guitar lines under the vocals; screams that come from nowhere; unexpected harmonies and the occasional power metal riff. And it's a musical kind of restlessness where melody is never sacrificed for effect. Vocalist Matt Davies doesn't have the strongest voice you'll ever hear but varies his delivery throughout the album and does well to stay with the constant chopping and changing of his band mates. Harnessing the emotion of the music, he gives it a sense of fluidity it would otherwise lack, for a great deal of the record its more a case of what he sings than how he sings it. FFAF deal strongly in imagery, and are lyrically cinematic in scope. "Who shot the bullet / That killed the air tonight" is the wonderfully evocative opening couplet from Bullet Theory. Escape Artists Never Die gives us "We'll start a fire / And burn some bridges / And make it out of here tonight." It's an underlying sense of being at battle with the world - without fully understanding how or why - that fires the restlessness of 'Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation.' There's something intoxicating about a new, young band that announce their arrival with an album comprised of layered, complex songs with compelling titles (Bend Your Arms To Look Like Wings, Rookie Of The Year, She Drove Me To Daytime Television) all delivered with a sense of purpose. Funeral For A Friend are out there to be discovered. You know what to do.  |
|
The latest issue available now!     |
All content copyright dB Magazine