Fight Amp

Manners And Praise

Written by: PP on 27/11/2009 21:04:45

New Jersey, the hotbed for creativity and all around awesomeness when it comes to music, offers another one of its disciples in the form of Fight Amp and their sophomore album "Manners And Praise", a pummeling sludge effort that draws equally much from punk as it does from metal. If you're looking for a sonic onslaught, you've come to the right place, as Fight Amp's noisy and dirty hybrid of the two genres is one of the most consuming efforts I've listened to as of late. If you're looking for your basic verse/chorus rock band, you're definitely in the wrong place, and you'll likely be turned off immediately on album opener "Bad Listener I", which effectively sounds like Poison The Well interpreting Mastodon songs together with members of Kylesa and Baroness.

For the most part, however, "Manners And Praise" spends its time sounding like the entire Mastodon catalogue put through a meat grinder by Unsane, except instead of venturing on seemingly never-ending journeys of beautiful sonic experimentation, Fight Amp's songs have been designed at least to a degree with today's ADD generation in mind. Only a few songs advance past the three minute mark, which makes listening to individual songs easier, but because of the sludgy nature of the band's songs in general, it also has the unfortunate side effect of gluing the songs together so you won't necessarily even notice when the band shifts to another song. The exceptions happen during those tracks that borrow enough from ferocious hardcore punk to justify a comparison to a band like The Ghost Of Thousand, except Fight Amp's vocalist won't be spending half of their performance in the crowd screaming in people's faces.

But as addictive as their foggy, bleary brand of noise rock can be at times, I just can't shake off the feeling that Fight Amp essentially sound like a b rate Mastodon without even intending to go for that type of sound. You can hear the bands influences on every step of the record (Melvins, The Jesus Lizard, Unsane all clearly audible), but in the end, one's left hoping for the song's to be just that teeny weeny bit better so they'd stick to your mind instead of just paying a short visit.

6

Download: Bad Listener I, Be Safe
For the fans of: Mastodon, Kylesa, Baroness, The Ghost Of A Thousand, Unsane
Listen: Myspace

Release date 27.10.2009
Translation Loss Records

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