Anyone who knows me will recognise that I’m not the biggest fan of ’emo’. Obviously, that tag encompasses so many sub-genres yadda yadda, and I’m not here to debate the nature of Emo itself. Rather, to introduce this splendid EP from a young new band named That Fateful Day. The reason I stated my usual distaste for Emo is to highlight how surprised I was at the quality of this 5 track sampler.
Wearing their Walter Schreifels influences on their sleeves, opener ‘Disconnect’ launches into a rollicking riff that the entire band can feed off. The vocals are not the most impressive during the verses because you get the singer is holding something back. And bloody hell he releases it during the choruses. Here, the vocals soar with a power and passion that is then transferred to the rest of the track, even with a drop that serves to build up anticipation for the final section. Once it all kicks in, with vocals, bassline and rolling, sweeping guitars it sounds fantastic.
When the second track is titled ‘Six’ you begin to wonder at the intelligence of a band. When said track is revealed to be yet another stomper reminiscent of At The Drive In bare-knuckle fighting with Rival Schools it doesn’t matter anymore. A spoken-word intro to the bridge works superbly, a novel and atmosphric way of cueing up another triumphant chorus. the entire song has a strong, fast paced nature which hardly relents. It’s different to the usual slow-fast format that so many bands use and abuse, and as such brings the musical talent of the group to the fore.
While ‘Drive Thru’ sounds like it may have been written as an ode to his favourite label by Paul, ironically enough it’s possibly the weakest track on the EP. It’s still good, a solid album track perhaps, but doesn’t manage to grab the attention in quite the vehement way of the others. It seems a bit predictable and the middle section is somewhat plodding, emo-by-numbers if you will. It has a good lead guitar line which the song revolves around but never takes off in the euphoric way that ‘Disconnect’ does so effectively.
A simple, yet superbly executed riff opens the title track and heralds a return to form. It’s my favourite musical moment on the whole EP but the vocals once again don’t do as much as they could. On other track they really explode into life, bringing wih them the vibe of a particular song but don’t go the extra mile that they could do here. A stripped down middle eight leads brilliantly into a repeat of the chorus but while ‘Warning’ is a good track it has the potential to be great.
Finally, ‘Variant’ kicks in with a Thursday-esque riff before a rampaging bassline joins in. It’s a more violent, passionate track than the rest which brings the EP to close in a blinding fashion. It does all the right things at all the right times with seamless melding of screeching guitar lines and a full, crunching chorus. “Don’t fall into this pathy” comes the cry, and it’s bloody hard to when music is played this vehemently.
Like I said, this is an extremely promising EP from a young band whom I’d greatly love to see live. It’s sometimes let down by a lack of musical conviction, perhaps afraid to really let go but as is evident on parts of the EP they should just go mad, because when they do it’s mightily impressive.
Ben
Contact: gavin@thatfatefulday.com for more info. Do it – trust me!