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Fear Before The March Of Flames
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Art Damage
Equal Vision Records
Release: 9/07/2004
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Rated:
Review by:
Matthew Nanes
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The state of current hardcore music could be sectioned off into
two factions. One, you have the traditional hardcore "crew"
band; the metal-influenced (but do they even know that?) band
that wears their heart on their sleeve. Then there are the
hardcore bands in the vein of Converge, Botch and Isis that are
paving the way with their own sound. Fear Before The March Of
Flames falls into this latter category, while possessing elements
of bands like Botch, Converge and The Blood Brothers. Hailing
from Denver, Colorado, Fear Before The March Of Flames is
definitely marching to the beat of their amphetamine-flavored
drummer. They add their own twist of hilarity and state of the
art imagery that makes their new album for Equal Vision
Records, Art Damage, the way it is.
The album is an obvious stab at the music industry with the
cover showing a coffin being carried out from the Capitol
Records building. That is reinforced by their first track, "Hey
Kid. I'm A Computer. Stop All The Downloading," which begins
with various noises and drummer Brandon Proff's frenetic
drumming that explodes like a bullet-fast locomotive. Gone
from the Fear Before of yesterday is any and all sense of
melody (like on their previous album, Odd How People
Shake) and it ends up working. Any melodic singing that
is done on the album (which are performed by guitar Adam
Fisher) is only there to help the song be that much more
creepy sounding, and since it's being complemented by vocalist
Dave Marion's growls, it's the perfect contrast. You can easily
liken Art Damage to a soundtrack of a circus gone
mental, and that's a compliment on the highest form. Very
rarely a heavy band can make music so ugly that you have to
applaud it. Also, props to bassist Mike Madruga for actually
holding everything together, which seems like a daunting task
in this band.
Fear Before The March Of Flames has been able to make an
amazingly engineered record (thanks to Matthew Ellard who
has done work for Converge) in Art Damage. It
paints a portrait of a band that's not afraid to push the
boundaries of heavy music, leaving the listener to wonder
where they could possibly go in the future. |
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