Recently Added Bands
Aftersummer
BeleGurth
Creophagy
Dreadful Hours
Finding Charlie
Garbage Truck
Grey Skies Burn Red
Habitha
In Ovo
Jesus Christ Metal Force
Lucid
Servants of Wrath
Shattered Dimension
Six Days till Sunrise
Texas Metal Militia
Torment Defined
Varekai
|
Recently Added Clubs/Venues
Hotrods and Hoggs
Side Pocket Lounge
|
|
Fair To Midland - The Carbon
Copy Silver Lining
By James
Fair to Midland accomplished something very rarely done by most
bands out there. They went from being very close to the bottom
of my list of favorite bands to very close to the top in less
than four minutes. When a friend of mine hounded and hounded
me to give these guys a second chance (I had heard some of their
stuff about two years ago and was quite unimpressed), I did
so under complete protest to shut him up. I downloaded An Occurrence
During The Restoration Process and was completely awestruck.
Not since Mike Patton, have I heard a vocalist to quick to make
me stand up and go, "whoa, this guy is fuckin weird".
I have a hard time explaining Fair To Midland's sound to anyone.
I have tried, but it is a truly daunting task, because Andrew's
vocals are unlike anything else in the modern heavy scene, that
I have heard. Musically, they tread a lot of familiar ground.
Take a little bit of Coal Chamber, a splash of Sevendust, throw
in what can only be described as a kind of Irish folk music
and you might have some idea of what you get when you listen
to this band. The vocals define this band and they are what
saves Fair To Midland from being just another melodic heavy
band in a scene where there about 2469821427 melodic heavy bands.
Andrew's use of vibrato in his vocals completely blew my mind,
the first time I heard An Occurrence During The Restoration
Process. In this CD's heavier moments, Coal Chamber's influence
shines through, greatly, as the band settles into low, thumping
grooves and Andrew goes off with a very Dez-like scream, while
the cleaner melodies give way to a much more soulful vocal styling.
While these are done well, it is the afore-mentioned vibrato
and the folk music affectations that will make or break the
average listener. It is very much a love it or hate it situation
and most people's opinions of this band are going to be based
heavily on whether the vocals speak to them or not.
Fair To Midland is a shining example of what I mean when I say
it is possible to not be original and still be very unique.
They take a style that is quite popular, right now, and add
just enough of their own oddness to make them stand strongly
out from the crowd. Despite my love for the strangeness of Fair
To Midland's style, it is that strangeness that, in a sense,
makes them very hard to take. To give up that strangeness would
be to doom them to being "just another heavy rock band",
though. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.
|
|
Since 02.23.06
|
::Submit News::
Bands:
#
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
::Submit News::