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Final Coil are a metallic grunge band located at Leicester, England. They've put out various EPs / albums on Bandcamp which all represent a own style the band is capable to play so if you listen to the various stuff you'll be surprised to hear how different they can sound like.
The "Somnambulant" record they've put out in 2014 saw the band going into a acoustic direction offering very sensible and deeply-emotional songs. In the time between "Failed Lights", a brand new and in my ears excellent acoustic song saw the light of day on YouTube, it's a recording of a web-broadcast the band did a while ago.
Only few details on the next record were spread through Facebook in the meantime. But this will end today....
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| (c) by Final Coil, used with kind permission |
Summary / Purchase-Link
Having heard the songs I've talked about above I was absolutely sure that the band would come around with another acoustic record. The new track sounded like a perfect fit, a bridge between the "Somnambulant" tunes and the beginning of a more progressive era of new longer acoustic tracks held in the typical Final Coil style.
The cool thing is: everything about this was totally wrong. :-) In fact what can be heard right here is the heaviest stuff the band has come up with today. I would call it the heaviest songs the band has put out up to this point. The guitars are absolutely sharp and ripping everything to pieces that stands in their way. Meanwhile the drums and bass guitar maintain a fine note of rhythm, giving in a hard, dry and deep punch into the sound. The vocals put a perfect layer over this, transporting much of the emotions of the tracks.
Everything is held in a very tight style, it's crushing heavyness coming from every corner of the sound. It doesn't even leave a single chance of easy sound on most of the tracks (the last song is a exception from that). If you like your music heavy and ultratight this EP will make you more than happy.
In fact I would call this a mixture of the first EP "Goodbye to all that" and their second effort "Live with doubt". Don't miss out this gem. The EP will be released on 2. November 2015. You'll be able to get a free listen / download for a first spin over at Bandcamp starting at that day. There will also be a limited edition CD available. Please buy one of the CDs so underground bands can keep making music and move on. It's worth listening to it numerous times, a EP mixing up all the various styles of the band and bringing them out in the most beautiful form. Progression and heavyness in all of it's beauty.
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The fine thing as of today is that Heavy Metal Underdogs can give you exclusively a first listen of one of the tracks of the brand new EP. I'm very proud that the band picked my blog for this song premiere. It's a honour for me. So without further ado enjoy the track "Daylight Fades" right here.
Track-by-track review
A short intro called "Close to the light" gives in some atmospheric touches with guitar effects and some vocal extracts before a sharp guitar cut comes rushing in quickly leading over to the first full track.
While the first track "Daylight Fades" starts with a simple rhythm it becomes quickly clear that the band had a hard sound in mind when writing this track. The repeating of the text is a kicker in my ears. Especially the second "can't" repeated several times makes this harking back to your mind. Some of the guitar sounds even remind me of good old Jimi Hendrix and his special sound effects. The bridge between the first refrain and the second refrain could easily be described as a sonic guitar bomb. I love this effect! The end of this first song offers a compressed part that only slightly let's room for variations but those played kick the number up even higher. it's like a glimpse of light falling out of a dark mass shaping a form into the darkness for just a few moments but long enough to keep you longing for more.
"Goodybe to all that" picks up where "Daylight Fades" left off, showing what the band is able to do with re-writting a classic track. This incarnation of the track features a much more compressed and heavy guitar sound compared to the original track. Besides that it leaves away most of the playing effects of the 2010 release giving a sharper focus on the main-theme of the song. It shows impressively that reduction can be a fine way of giving a track a new and much heavier interpretation. Nevertheless it doesn't mean the song works only with cutting away things. Moreover these elements were added back again but in a different and harder format. It's now all distorted, yet you will need some fine playing skills to get to replay this I'm sure.
The final track "Closed to the light" is a surprise to the listener. It stands out of the other material giving some redemption after the brutal heavyness that stormed through your ears before. The song starts out softly with some drums and few vocals. The volume is rising all the while as the music slowly starts to build up more. The tonality is set softer, more dreamingly at this point. Much room for the more progressive site of the band on this one. This touches softly the "Somnabulant" era but with more punch and drums before some slightly heavy guitars keep coming in. The vocals are very intense with much drum fills performed to the last silent corners of the song. The last third brings in some heavyness in the guitar section giving some thoughts to the legendary Pink Floyd. A epic masterpiece in my ears. After all I'm listening to the whole record on repeat. It's a big pleasure to have the chance to listen to such a talented band.
