With a band-name like Fell On Black Days, you'd expect something of a Soundgarden influence (their moniker is, indeed, taken from that classic grunge track), but there is very little evidence of that in their music. What is obvious is that an array of pretty hefty metal bands have left their mark on the Ebbw Vale quintet. Despite the EP suffering from a slightly muddy production, there is some fairly meaty bass and coarse vocals that are allowed to bully their way through the hammer-down chugging, giving us a whole mouthful of Hatebreed to chomp on, all delivered at a breakneck Megadeth speed and loaded with a Pantera heartbeat at its core.
'Tooth And Nail' is, predictably, full-bore groove with all guns blazing; the bastard son of Machine Head's 'Bulldozer' and DevilDriver's 'Bound By The Moon', and, as such, is a fine opener to set the mood, whilst 'Mea Culpa' and 'Cold Rapture' open a whole new musical Pandora's Box to reveal a dirty, black interior which Matt Hall and Mark Tranter's guitars proceed to explode from in all directions. The latter introduces a cleaner vocal on the chorus, a choppier rhythm and a flurry of double-kick that add a whole array of extra layers to focus on.
The sound quality stoops further into less distinct, murkier waters for the title-track which is a shame, but the song lurking back there sounds easily the match of its forerunners. Gavin Robinson's vocal is a fearsome combination of furious throat scraping and hearty flamethrower and sits well within the mix of push and pull sequences, whilst there is always something more expansive kicking off in the background to offer a mental exit away from the mayhem.
There's undoubtedly real talent on display here and if they weren't kicking up the same dust that a thousand groove/thrash-influenced metal bands had already misplaced, I'd honestly believe that FOBD were the next big thing. However, they might have to do a little bit of jostling for position before they can lay claim to that title.
http://www.myspace.com/fobd
