Review Summary: Screamo firing on all cylinders.
In this split, two bands ranging from separate hemispheres collaborate to tell a story of a man delving for self-meaning but he uncovers nothing but the flaws in his past and present self. With Foxes ability to create vivid and visual landscapes, and Iselia's emotional opuses combined with their technicality instrumentally, each band brings a separate piece of the diverse screamo genre to the table and melds together a split with a splendid conceptual synopsis. In doing a split, bands are given a great opportunity to experiment with either a new sound completely, or improve a sound they previously solidified. Despite this split being released rather early in both band's careers, each band seems to have found a niche in their music that their fans can appreciate. In saying this, each band also has a very disinguished sound that varies greatly from each other. To make this simple, this split will be reviewed in order of each band's appearance.
Foxes makes their commencement at the beginning of the split by distorting guitars to make a eerie and cacophonous ring that gives the listener a feeling of uneasiness and is a good way to introduce you to, ladies and gentlemen, Foxes! Yes. Foxes is widely known for crafting moody pieces of artsy oeuvre, and making their tracks sound somewhat theatrical. It is apparent that vocalists like Jordan Dreyer, and Jeremy Bolm are huge influences to vocal performances for Foxes. They are very mid-style screams packed full of raw unadulterated passion. Vocals are often narrator-like as the lyrics that follow are absolutely gorgeous and paint the pain so to speak, of our protagonist on a blank canvas. Guitars are distorted muchos in the jewel of a track, "Withered Eyes Through a Fractured Pane" and shows that Foxes are fearless, but in search for a distinctive sound that separates them from normal screamo goers, but also withholds a comfortable distance to fans of bands like mewithoutYou, or La Dispute . Where Foxes tends to differ most from their split buddies, is their ability to successfully hypothesize, experiment, and reach a desired outcome. Each track has no attempt to maintain any sort of "musical formula/structure". Cohesive tracks, strong punctuated vocals, and an predilection to dabble with different instruments and reach a desired sound, are all reasons why Foxes are sly (wink wink) and cunning enough to be crowned as champions in the realm of modern screamo.
And Iselia (band name originated from the video game Tales of Symphonia)... Not long after Iselia's critically acclaimed debut release of 'Life from Dead Limbs' in 2011, we were informed that lead vocalist Jason Cruz was to fight for our beloved country US of A, and could no longer be the singer of Iselia. Iselia spent several months in search of a replacement vocalist, but decided to stick with two original members (Molefi Ramos and Corey King) to take reigns of the vocal positions. Each vocalist has a different pitch and tone to their scream which makes them a dual threat in both executing lyrics, and diversifying an almost bland vocal scheme previously, and in turn, brings a fresh new feel of ardent emotion to the Iselia outfit. Instrumentation however, is still the same classic post-rock vibe as evoked in LFDL, but with a slightly darker and sinister guitar, plus less quirky synthesizer as heard before. My main complaint of LFDL was the metallic synths humming over beautiful songs at the wrong time. Christian Powers has finally explored his proper alcove in the band by attaching synths to the mix by tuning them down, and adding an impressive bit of classical piano (genius by the way) to the final two tracks of the split. The piano in 'Standstill' exudes tranquility, but is immediately breached by a tapering click noise and back to the screaming thoughts of our protagonist to close the track and the split. The upbeat and varying rhythm of the drums are nothing less than stellar and add to the synchronized chaos Iselia so masterfully achieves. All in all, Iselia was not in dire need of any sort of momentous change because their sound is so complete with a formulaic, yet eclectic sound you won't find anywhere else.
So if I were you, I'd go and buy this record from our professional little skramzters, and make it a part of my bands to watch list. You won't be disappointed by any means. As the old guys would say it, "You're gonna go far kids!"
