If you would've asked me six months ago what I thought about this band of youngster from my local area, I probably would've given you some cocky answer about how 'some kids just try too hard', and how they would probably end up playing the local youthclub for the rest of their carreer. In spite of what I aim for, I can be awefully prejudiced at times. Let's say that I did not really like the idea of another Black Haven/Rise And Fall-ish band emerging in the scene, plus some personal stuff that kind of got in the way of a good understanding. I'm mentioning this because I want to make clear on which foot I started to follow Fundamental, which was obviously the wrong one.
Only a couple of weeks before their first show (and a rather bad rehearsalsong they put on their myspace page), Levy (the singer) asked me if I was interested in playing bass for them. I was completely taken by surprise, and because of my reservedness towards the band and something concerning former lovers, it never happened, but the result was that by talking to this guy I was forced to acknowledge that he wasn't half as clueless as I thought he would be. Anyway, my curiosity was triggered and I decided to attend one of their shows in a local club. Plagued by the growing pains of starting band, they nevertheless managed to leave a lasting impression on me through their unrestrained enthousiasm and the apparent seriousness with which they were approaching the whole thing. You could tell that they meant it.Several months later, Fundamental finally released their first demo recording, which finally brings me to the point of this 'review'. Where Rise And Fall needed an entire song to condemn all the liars and fakers to oblivion, these kids manage to do it in a one and a halfminute intro. A simple, but horribly effective stroke of the bass builds the tension, until the rest of the band comes in, leaving just enough breathingspace for the singer to scream "this is real!" from the top of his lungs. Three words and nothing remains to be said. 'Valor' is the first real song. Simplicity and effectiveness, spiced up with some really cool ideas, remain the keywords throughout. For kids as young and unexperienced as they are, they manage to avoid a lot of pitfalls that are fatal to most starting bands by sticking to the magic formula of putting only a couple of good ideas in one song and not stacking up one mediocre and too far-fetched riff upon another. 'Whole' is more melodic and straightforward in its approach, almost catchy. The song never manages to achieve its goal (whatever that should be) but it gets really damn close. Final track 'Ill-Fated' starts of with a bassriff that makes me want to punch myself because I didn't come up with it. Only thing I don't really like here is the 'dun dun'-stuff in the verse, but that's just me. The ending is as epic as you would expect it to be (nice, slow burning riff, topped off with passionate and almost heartfellt screaming, you know how it rolls).
You can tell these guys have not just been worshipping their influences imagining how cool they would look like on stage playing this kind of music, but they have obviously been listening carefully and that is giving them a headstart towards competition. En plus, they are the prototype of a real hardcoreband: not pretending to be groundbreaking, but taking what they know and doing what they can to give that anger and frustration inside a voice and a let-out. And most importantly, despite some minor flaws, pulling it off. One can only hope they won't be the next band in line to call it quits before ever having the chance to come into its own, because if this recording figures as a herald for things to come, chances are they still have a lot more in store.
Myspace
thanks to whoever took the picture
No comments:
Post a Comment