With one self titled album under their belts, which was
released in October of 2011, Fall and
Divide already have an arsenal of great songs to display exactly why the
band is something more than just a Toronto bar band. Consisting of four of the
most talented musicians you’ve never heard of, Drew Wright on vocals/guitar, Paul
Fonseca on bass, Rickferd VanDyk
on lead guitar and John Pacheco on
drums.
The album opens with the slow and creepy To Be. This track consists of harmonized vocals that make the song
sound like it could have been recorded by Alice
In Chains. The songs consistent pace and heavy distorted music, along with
Drew’s incredible vocal capabilities, make this a perfect opening track to give
listeners a piece of what they are in for the rest of the album.
The track Pieces
has an odd and original guitar rhythm track. Rickferd shows at many points of the album that he is just a
original and talented as the likes of Mark
Tremonti of Alter Bridge when it
comes to writing guitar rhythms. Pieces
is one of the slowest paced song on the album. It is by no means a ballad, as
it carries a very dark and slightly angry tone throughout the song, with Drew concentrating more on the softer
side of his voice throughout the song. The song also displays John’s incredible progressive abilities
on drums.
Never The
Case is one of the finer tracks on the album. It goes from soft and
soothing to heavy, then back to soft, and has a bridge that can put you in a
trance. What’s It Gonna Take is the
albums ballad, and a fantastic one at that. The song maintains a bit of an
angry feel to it, mostly because to the drums, but the slow paced acoustic
guitars behind the sound of electric guitars and the soft vocals make this a
highlight among modern rock ballads.
Flames gets the
album back into a bit of a fast pace. This track specifically features one of
the better guitar solos on the album. The middle section of the song is incredibly
written, almost jazzy with Rickferd
playing a not so distorted, bluesy solo that turns into a balls out wailing of
the six strings provided to him.
This Life is a true
gem on the album. It’s a slower paced track, not totally heavy, but heavy
enough to please any hard rock fan, and features the best melodies found
throughout the whole album, both in terms of the vocals and guitar playing.
It is difficult to
pinpoint two songs on this album that sound similar to one another. Adding to
the many examples given to you is the track S.O.S. This is another softer track, only it isn’t quite a ballad like
What’s It Gonne Take, but it’s not a
progressive masterpiece like Pieces,
it’s more or less a sweet and simple track to calm the albums listener down,
getting them prepared for what’s next. What exactly is next? No Evil. This track is the heaviest song
on the album, and the best one to get pumped up to. It features the heaviest
guitars on the album, but slows into intermittent slow parts, as do so many songs
on the album. The middle section, for the guitar solo, is just about as genius
as Flames. The music slows into a
slow and evil sound, with Rickferd
just letting the guitars feedback take effect, before the background music starts
to thump harder and harder, leading into an almost Rush-like break, before getting back into the songs chorus.
Face Me
is
another track on the album that is not so much a downbeat track, features heavy
guitars and incredible vocals; similar to the likes of Never the Case. The Shelter
gives the albums listener one last chance to hear a softer paced song. This
song starts off with a great acoustic riff, which makes way for the heavier
instruments to provide a great melodic song, with another great middle section;
this time not so much a guitar solo but you definitely notice the guitar.
The last track on the album, Once And For All, ends the album the way it began. I don’t mean it
sounds like To Be, but just like To Be it sounds like it a grunge song.
You could almost picture Chris Cornell
singing this track; only he wouldn’t do the justice that Drew has done throughout the whole album. This track features
something I haven’t mentioned enough in terms of Drew’s vocal abilities, and that is his ability to sing at a nice
soft tempo, and then he is able to turn that soft voice in to a scream that you
didn’t know he was capable of.
Fall and
Divide really do not sound like anyone else. They would fall under
the alternative category, but also provide a fantastic style of progressive
rock that is frankly unheard of. Most modern progressive rock needs to have heavily
distorted instruments and seems to always have to maintain a fast paced rhythm
throughout the album. Fall and Divide
seem to be giving rebirth to the mid-days of progressive rock, when bands like Rush ruled the airwaves. I’m not saying
that they sound like Rush of course.
Fall and Divide show musicianship
that is hard to match with any current band and that makes them probably the
best band you’ve never heard of.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“Never the Case” – It was difficult to choose between this track and This Life, but here is why Never the Case gets the nod; having
seen the band perform, I witnessed them play this song in its entirety for
sound check a couple of hours before they played their show. I was worried that
when they played the song during their actual set that I would tire of it because
I had just heard it. That was not the case as when they performed it again just
a couple of hours later, it was as if it got even better the more I listened to
it. Like so many of the songs on the album it mixes the bands melodic
capabilities with their heavy music capabilities. It also displays the
progressive abilities that the band has.
FINAL RATING
8.5 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
"To Be"
|
3:29
|
2.
|
"Pieces"
|
4:33
|
3.
|
"Never the Case"
|
3:51
|
4.
|
"What’s It Gonna Take"
|
3:52
|
5.
|
"Flames"
|
4:06
|
6.
|
"This Life"
|
3:36
|
7.
|
"S.O.S."
|
4:34
|
8.
|
"No Evil"
|
4:25
|
9.
|
"Face Me"
|
3:39
|
10.
|
"The Shelter"
|
5:14
|
11.
|
"Once and For All"
|
5:45
|
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