Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (28/03/2013)
It’s always hard to write reviews for bands I loved while I was significantly younger, and especially a band like this. Funeral For A Friend were one of my gateway bands around a decade ago, and while they are not someone I actively listen to anymore, they are a band I will always go out of my way to check out if they tour or release a new album.
While this album might not have any of the catchy singles that made the band so popular, it’s still probably better than their last few albums, and I found myself humming along to quite a few chorus’s while writing this review. None of the songs are on the level of Streetcar or Roses For The Dead, but album opener Spine has a catchier chorus than they have written in years, and the album is filled with hooks and vocal melodies that seem to stick around in your head.
With the departure of long time drummer Ryan Richards, it seemed like the band would shy away from the heavier songs on the new album. However, the replacement drummer was Rise To Remain’s Pat Lundy, and this album seems to benefit from a heavier influence. Songs like the title track definitely have a heavier sound than anything that the band has played in years, and this sound works well for them now.
Matthew Davies-Kreye has become a much better vocalist over the years, and that is evident on the way in which he sings throughout Conduit. I found a lot of his appeal on early releases was the youthful, almost amateur vocals that were their trademark, but more than a decade on, they’re not the band they were in their teenage years, and this is reflected with the more mature sound on this album.
Best Friends and Hospital Bends is one of the songs on the album that calls to mind some of the bands earlier releases, and it’s the fastest and catchiest thing they’ve released in quite some time now.
Most of Funeral For A Friend’s peers from the early 2000’s have either broken up or become parodies of their earlier selves, and it’s cool to see that Funeral For A Friend can still deliver a catchy, solid album, more than twelve years on.
For most people who grew up with this band, no album they release will ever come close to Casually Dressed, as that album helped define so many people’s early years. While not quite a return to form for the band that once helped pioneer a sound, this in nonetheless a solid album that should happily satisfy most people.
Josh Mitrou
While this album might not have any of the catchy singles that made the band so popular, it’s still probably better than their last few albums, and I found myself humming along to quite a few chorus’s while writing this review. None of the songs are on the level of Streetcar or Roses For The Dead, but album opener Spine has a catchier chorus than they have written in years, and the album is filled with hooks and vocal melodies that seem to stick around in your head.
With the departure of long time drummer Ryan Richards, it seemed like the band would shy away from the heavier songs on the new album. However, the replacement drummer was Rise To Remain’s Pat Lundy, and this album seems to benefit from a heavier influence. Songs like the title track definitely have a heavier sound than anything that the band has played in years, and this sound works well for them now.
Matthew Davies-Kreye has become a much better vocalist over the years, and that is evident on the way in which he sings throughout Conduit. I found a lot of his appeal on early releases was the youthful, almost amateur vocals that were their trademark, but more than a decade on, they’re not the band they were in their teenage years, and this is reflected with the more mature sound on this album.
Best Friends and Hospital Bends is one of the songs on the album that calls to mind some of the bands earlier releases, and it’s the fastest and catchiest thing they’ve released in quite some time now.
Most of Funeral For A Friend’s peers from the early 2000’s have either broken up or become parodies of their earlier selves, and it’s cool to see that Funeral For A Friend can still deliver a catchy, solid album, more than twelve years on.
For most people who grew up with this band, no album they release will ever come close to Casually Dressed, as that album helped define so many people’s early years. While not quite a return to form for the band that once helped pioneer a sound, this in nonetheless a solid album that should happily satisfy most people.
Josh Mitrou