Wednesday, 19 August 2020

Fellsilent "Fell Silent" (2004)

 
  To round out the nostalgic dive into a legendary local scene band, I managed to scrape together two of the three songs that made up their first demo! I'd never heard this these songs before and initially they sounded stylistically different from the Djent beast they would become. The tone of Metal at play was surprisingly really fitting of the local scenes of the time, getting away from the shadow Nu Metal and reinventing the wheel with a strong Metalcore influence. I even have some CD-R demos that sound not far from whats at play here.

Yet to master the Djent tone, the group have a shorter measure of polyrhythms in the guitar riffing, playing out stomping grooves with tightly picked riffs often dizzying around single notes and bends. After an analytical listen one can see the path they took. At this stage their songs are strong, decent but yet to be exceptional. The Meshuggah influence not so obvious. They do however have the songwriting to lead their collection of choppy riffs to climaxes as both the songs led to a satisfying conclusion.

Singer Neema Askari has yet to knuckle down that bleak forceful tone in his screaming and so sounds rather amateurish in that typical feel of local bands. His cleans however are far more emotive and expose a chemistry that prevails to their later work. Both the songs I heard are fantastic and grow fondly with many repetitions. It may not have been obvious at the time the potential this group of young lads had but all the pieces are there in one form or another.

 Its really uncanny just how much it all reminds me the other bands in the scene of this era but perhaps not so given how in the early naughties we were still mostly geographically defined, even though the internet culture was starting to blossom. Such a treat to enjoy but more so for personal reasons. This demo is a fine starting point for the band and on a final note, very well produced for a scene demo! Its a great listen, wish I could just find that third track!

Rating: 4/10