Albums : Funeral For A Friend : Conduit

Albums : Funeral For A Friend : Conduit

Listen To Funeral For A Friend : Conduit

Who Is Funeral For A Friend?
Funeral for a Friend's energized blend of emo, metal, and post-hardcore is created by vocalist Matt Davies, guitarists Kris Roberts and Darran Smith, bassist Gareth Davies, and drummer Randy Richards. The Welsh quintet first appeared in 2002 with a series of EPs and singles, including Between Order and Model, Four Ways to Scream Your Name, and Juneau. Such releases helped land the group on the cover of Kerrang! magazine, a recognition of the band's growing hype that, in turn, earned a record deal with Warner Music. Funeral for a Friend's debut full-length, Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation, was then issued in October 2003. It was not given a concurrent U.S. release; instead, the seven-track mini-CD Seven Ways to Scream Your Name (collecting non-album tracks from the earlier EPs) appeared domestically via the New Jersey indie label Ferret. Meanwhile, Funeral for a Friend embarked on a series of high-profile touring engagements, including a series of European dates opening for Iron Maiden.

Touring continued through summer 2004, and the Spilling Blood in 8mm DVD appeared in September with live footage, videos, and a band documentary. Funeral for a Friend returned in June 2005 with Hours, their second full-length; more touring followed, including the band's first stint on the Warped Tour. The guys also picked up that year's Kerrang! award for Best British Band. Back at home by the end of 2005, Matt Davies utilized some downtime from touring to work on material for his first side project, the alt-country-inspired the Secret Show, whose debut album was released in February 2007. Three months later, Funeral for a Friend issued their next album, Tales Don't Tell Themselves, subsequently jumping on the road for headlining dates in the U.K. and U.S. before spending summer on the Warped Tour. Memory and Humanity followed shortly thereafter, arriving during the final quarter of 2008 and featuring the band's familiar mix of emo-influenced songcraft and anthemic rock uplift.

Conduit Review
Channeling the hardcore sound that acts as the foundation of metalcore and post-hardcore, Funeral for a Friend look to the driving sounds of the past on their circle pit-inducing sixth album, Conduit. While there are still plenty of melodic elements in the band's sound, especially when it comes time for a big chorus to spring up, the album feels more direct. With the album rolling in at just under 30 minutes, the Welsh band conjures up a straightforward punk-influenced aggression that isn't afraid to get right in your face and tell you exactly how it feels about something. While this doesn't necessarily add a lot of nuance to their sound, the rawness found on Conduit is refreshing in a scene filled with overwritten and over-produced albums. If anything, the way the vocals on "Best Friends and Hospital Beds" fight to keep up with the music gives the album an off the cuff feeling, making the whole thing less polished and generally more real. The real standout moment on the album has to be "Grey," a thrasher of a song that feels like a model of hardcore efficiency as it packs as much energy as it can into a tightly wound two-minute package. At times, Conduit feels like a step backward for Funeral for a Friend, but that's because, well, it is. Fortunately, the album is solid enough to prove that every so often a little de-evolution is just what a band needs, and that it's entirely possible to head into the future while looking toward the past.


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