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Fervours

Fervours EP

Written by: DR on 12/02/2010 11:06:59

Oddly enough, I do still check MySpace regularly. The main reason being that many, many bands still use it as a primary medium for promoting news, tours, or just their music. From Essex come Fervours, and are one of the umpteen unsigned bands hoping to score a spot of recognition by sending messages asking for you to listen to them. If it wasn't for them giving away this EP for free, and citing At The Drive-In as one of their main influences, I would not have looked at this quintet twice.

The first thing you notice about Fervours will be the key reason in their appeal to many, but an excuse for passing them over to the rest; that reason is the ATD-I influence simply cannot be ignored. Fervours sound strikingly similar to the them. Frontman Samuel Fisher personifies this. His screams match Cedric's almost pound-for-pound in terms of energy, and if wasn't for his heavy "Landan" accent, his clean vocals would sound almost identical in tone, but would still come up short due to the fact he's not technically as great of a singer. He more than compensates for this though with spirited endeavour; see the end of "Jigsaw" for the perfect example. The instrumentation takes a slightly more minimalistic approach than ATD-I. They display sufficient talent throughout, but lack the sort of edge required to make them great. It does please me to report that this isn't through lack of trying: "103" displays admirable experimentation, but tries to cram in too many tempo shifts. Less is more. "Jigsaw" is a fantastic song, and it's probably no coincidence that it's the only one out of the three that doesn't seem like it's trying too hard.

Fervours are still a young band, so the odds were always against them when it came to having the quality as well as the consistency. The quality is definitely apparent in places, but when it's not, there is at least a degree of ambition to console. There's more than enough here to not only suggest a bright future, but to also get me excited for future releases and urge fans of similar artists to keep one eye on Fervours.

Download: Jigsaw, Fanfare (get them for free here)
For The Fans of: At The Drive-In, Thursday, Hell Is For Heroes, Fugazi
Listen: Myspace

Release Date 2009
UNSIGNED