Does the world need another band that sound like Fei Commodo? No.
Does the world need bands as good as Fei Commodo? Yes.
This is the thing – I’m sick to death of bands that mix up Glassjaw-esque riffs with a little Bullet For My Valentine and then scream/sing over the resultant mess. It’s boring and we’ve heard it all before. It’s no different to the mid-to-late 90s ska trend or the pop-punk trend of around 2001/2. Music trends come and go and, to be honest, I wish this ‘screamo’ trend would die on its arse quickly. But there are always bands who come out of any trend that wipe the floor with cliches and embarrass the myriad of talentless acts who give the genre a bad name. Fei Commodo’s new record, ‘They All Have Two Faces’, could well be one of the best UK releases of it’s type. It’s that good.
Now I don’t have a tracklisting for this record and it’s not out until September 1, so bear with me. But tracks 2, 6 and 7 are absolutely brain-batteringly amazing. Some of the riffs would melt your face if you stood close enough and there’s more talent on display here than most bands can muster in their lifetime. And while FC fail to re-invent the wheel they do everything they can to mix things up to keep them interesting. Forgoing the typical album route is also a success as they’ve clearly trimmed the fat making every song on here a good one; there’s nothing to skip and no time is wasted.
The production is impressive, the vocal melodies balance beautifully with the heavier bits and everything works very nicely indeed. They cater for the more metal among you, our loving readers, but they also have enough singalong bits to cater for people like me who are suckers for hooks (that’s hooks, not hookers). While young bands like You Me At 6 seem to get a lot of credit for playing a similar style of music, Fei Commodo have written and recorded a mini album that, with any justice, will get them to the top of the tree.
The bar has been set. If you’re in a band and play a similar style of music, don’t even bother recording it, let alone sending it to me, unless you’re better than ‘They All have Two Faces’. It’s as simple as that.