Fear Before the March of Flames "Art Damage" CD
[Equal Vision]
I was highly irritated by these guys' last record, and while I'm still not into this one, it's a lot better. I definitely think the scathing screams are far too aggressive and over the top for what the music offers, but if nothing else the recording is a shitload better here. It's still very caustic and chaotic with a ton of dissonant note combinations, staggered time signatures and rhythmic chops, and those over the top screams, at times letting the vocals get into more of a weird spoken/sung sort of style (which is actually more annoying than the screaming). "Consequences David, You'll Meet Your Fate in the Styx" jumps from almost metallic riffing and lots of pull-off runs to a Mr. Bungle sounding passage with possible synths (I think?) and reverberated clean guitars with nice singing vocals (surprisingly good compared to the other vocal styles exhibited), "Absolutely Fabulous and Me" opens with lots of layered vocals (lower shouts) and chunkier chord progressions that are much heavier but still retain a shred of uncommon melody, "Law of Averages" has lots of fucked up riffs and layered guitar/bass parts that create a really interesting atmosphere, etc. All in all I think some of the more melodic moments deserve a stronger position in these compositions (the brief keyboard instrumental "A Tyrant Meets His Maker" is almost pretty damn cool, not quite, but certainly a change of pace), but what can you do? It's not so bad, I'm just glad to see the band heading in a better direction here. I love the recording this time out, though. The guitars are heavy as hell but also have a dirty bite to 'em that lets some of the looser and more acerbic riffs really bite through, the drums are really thick and resonant, and the basslines play a surprisingly important role. I think the vocals would be more effective if they were mixed closer to the music - sort of fighting to be heard amongst the instrumentation, but it's not that big a deal. The sound is definitely the strongest element of this record, because it's clear but lets the right amount of messiness have some space, despite the fact that the playing is actually pretty damn tight and controlled this time out, no matter how frantic the compositions get. The layout's pretty wild here. All of the text has a high gloss finish, and the outer booklet's high contrast black, white, and bright green graphics are misleading... as inside there are two pages per song: One for lyrics, one for a full color image that corresponds in some way to the song title or content. It looks pretty damn wild, and makes for quite a chunky booklet to flip through. The lyrics are a little quirky at times, sort of abstract, but they could be worse... I guess that whole delivery fits with this band's unusual aesthetic: "Is there nothing sacred anymore? Raise your hand and say well done before they put you in a casket so you know that you were worth it..." There are a lot of songs here that start to sound similar to one another after awhile, which isn't such a big deal since the disc is pretty damn short, but there's enough going on to hold my interest despite those similarities. I think they ought to focus less on all the pull-off styled riffs and work more with obscure melodies and some of the singing vocals and weirder bits they've got happening here, that stuff is more interesting and more original, so... they're improving. That's a good sign. (6/10)
Running time - 29:39, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Consequences David, You'll Meet Your Fate in the Styx, Absolutely Fabulous and Me, Law of Averages]
Equal Vision Records - http://www.equalvision.com

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