Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Fear My Thoughts
Label: Century Media
Release: 2007
The German band, formed in 1998, was just another act in the metalcore flood when it started out. The genre was on the rise, pulling in more and more listeners, and the Germans figured, why not try their hand at it too? Media exposure can’t miss us… Well, the guys miscalculated, and the big overnight breakthrough never came. Maybe their debut album for Century Media, Vulcanus, will finally bring it.
If there’s one thing you can’t accuse the quintet of, it’s that they don’t develop their sound. Their sound has come a long way in nine years, and that’s nothing but praiseworthy. Evolution-wise, Fear My Thoughts started out as a hardcore band, shifted to a more modern metalcore sound over their first albums, and with their last record Hell Sweet Hell and this newest attempt they’re sailing ever deeper into the waters of melodic death metal, aka the Gothenburg school of metal.
That the Germans learned a lot from their Swedish colleagues is clear right from the opening track, Accompanied by Death. The guitar harmonies and Mathias’s vocals instantly bring to mind the Swedish giants and one of the pioneers of the melodic death metal movement, In Flames. But while In Flames have lately been giving more and more room to samples, Fear My Thoughts head back here to the good old days of In Flames classics like The Jester Race or Whoracle. Definitely a promising start to the record, and it carries on in a similar vein with the track Blankness. Proper neck-breaking material, even if the guys used the tried-and-tested and by now overchewed formula of growls plus clean-sung choruses. Still, interesting ideas and well-written songs save them. Compared to the previous record, the quality of the material and the band’s instrumental chops have improved drastically, and Vulcanus is a real surprise. Culture of Fear shows just how versatile the Germans are at songwriting, with its chord progression, slow dreamy solos and extremely brutal growl drawing parallels with the Swedes Opeth. Fear My Thoughts pulled a real surprise on us with the thrashy Accelerate or Die, where Schmier (vocals, bass) and Mike (guitar) from Destruction join in as guest musicians. The German thrash legends leave their mark, and the track is an interesting mix of death and thrash metal, with Schmier’s unmistakable vocals and the typical solos of the German school of thrash. On Stamp of Credence the band even edges toward black metal, mostly thanks to the chorus, backed by atmospheric keyboards and double growl vocals that lean a bit toward Abbath’s from the cult band Immortal. Survival Scars will surely become a live favorite, mainly because of its dynamic chorus, whose “Oi, oi!” practically begs for crowd participation. On the title track the band is joined on keyboards by Kim Olesen of Anubis Gates, but with its repetitive guitar patterns and that feeling it’s about to explode any second, only for it never to happen, it left me cold. A few more fleshed-out, strictly instrumental tracks wouldn’t hurt in the future. Soul Consumer fixes the taste with its catchy riffs, although the guys again fall back on the growl/clean chorus formula. The record closes with the hard-hitting Lost in Black, with an excellent central guitar line, and the atmospheric Wastland, which conjures up a distinctive mood with its spoken-word lyrics and hammond keyboards, flirting with 70s prog rock. That it’s an extremely dynamic track is proven by the ending, where they go back to their hardcore-era vocals.
Even though the record gets a bit watered down after the opening four, Vulcanus is an extremely high-quality piece of work, helped along for sure by the production of Danish “wunderkind” Jacob Hansen (Communic, Mercenary, Maroon, etc.). If Fear My Thoughts drop the metalcore vocal formula of growling mixed with clean singing in the future, they’ll have no trouble reaching for the very top of melodic death metal. They don’t lack originality in their writing.
The Fear My Thoughts volcano is erupting harder than ever, and we’ll find out how they sound live next week, on 17.01., when Fear My Thoughts, as part of The Road to Devastation tour, support Canadian death metallers Kataklysm alongside Germany’s Neaera and Canadian tech-heads Quo Vadis, and play for the Slovenian crowd at the VPK Mediapark hall.
Lineup
Matthias von Ockl: vocals
Markus Ruf: guitar and backing vocals
Patrick Hagmann: guitar and backing vocals
Bartosz Wojciechowski: bass guitar
Norman Lonhard: drums
Production
Jacob Hansen
Track list
1. Accompanied by Death
2. Blankness
3. Culture of Fear
4. Accelerate or Die
5. Stamp of Credence
6. Survival Scars
7. Vulcanus
8. Soul Consumer
9. Both Blood
10. Gates to Nowhere
11. Lost in Black
12. Wasteland
