Review Summary: Funeral for a Friend once again achieves to impress with their level of skill and the ability to create memorable post-hardcore tunes but falls flat on holding up consistency throughout the whole record.
When a band creates its magnum opus within the first two albums, it's hard to follow up with something that matches expectations of longtime fans and won't be criticized on many fronts. After releasing two LP's, which are regarded as the saviour of Post-Hardcore in the early 00's by many, Funeral for a Friend tried to differ in their sound and while still delivering material far above average constantly, they also had to deal with a lot of displeasure by many who are waiting for a next 'Hours' or 'Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation'. Returning to a rawer sound similiar to their EP's on last record 'Conduit', our beloved welsh quintet continues with 'Chapter and Verse', which probably will divide fans just as their former release did.
First of all, everybody who couldn't get into Matts vocals on 'Conduit' might be even more disappointed this time around. He keeps his changed style of singing, or even shouting on many occasions, most of the time. And though I have to agree that it felt deterrent at first, you get used to it after several listens. Furthermore, one starts to appreciate the lack of any studio trickery, making it possible to take in the sheer emotions behind each song, even giving you the impression of enjoying a live performance at times, just with better recording.
Instrumental execution is as excellent as usual, with Kris' lead guitar skills taking the shining spot once again. He's often changing between fast paced riffs in the verses and more melodic approaches for the chorus, as seen in first single "You've Got a Bad Case of the Religions" with it's high pitched tapping sound switching into softer chords.
This scheme is also representative for the combination of musical directions found on the whole album. There are many songs or parts of such, verses mostly, that have a hardcore-punkish influence, also supported by the rapid drumming from Pat, who is playing on the record but left the band afterwards. Although those instances dominate much of 'Chapter and Verse', like on tracks as the short, fast hammering "Modern Excuse of a Man" or kind of chaotic "After All These Years…Like a Lightbulb Going Off in My Head" and are executed in a skillfull way, Funeral for a Friend are strongest when they do what we love them for in the first place.
'Conduit' focused on raw sound and strong riffs, while missing out the melodical side. Magic moments like the popular "and I'm nothing more than a line in your book"-bridge on 'Juneau', the innovative ending of 'Streetcar' or semi-acoustic creations like 'History' and 'Drive', just to name a few, set FFAF apart from their contemporarys at that time without sacrificing diverse guitar work you'd expect from a post-hardcore act. On 'Chapter and Verse' the band fortunately demonstrates, that they still have "it".
Tunes like 'Donny' or '1%' belong to the best we got to hear from them in a long time, both inducing goosebumps with their latter halfs fading from atmospheric string-picking into powerful chord-outros, completed by the aforementioned vocals you gotta love at these points leastwise. Another unexpected highlight comes with the acoustic track 'Brother', also profiting from Matts authentic vocal delivery. All of this is Funeral for a Friend at the top of their game.
But just as the latter song is only below 2 minutes short, those positive surprises sadly represent the minority of 'Chapter and Verse'. If you're like me and can't really get into the more punkish portions, there are still some good listens like opener 'Stand by Me for the Millionth Time' or finale 'The Jade Tree Years Were My Best', which can be catchy and are nice to have, but nothing overwhelming. Apart from those and the couple of highlights you get some ok but unspectacular songs which don't stick with you as long as you'd want them to, even sounding partly interchangeable at times.
The band once again achieved to impress with their skill and ability to create memorable post-hardcore tunes but falls flat on holding up consistency throughout the whole record. And although I'm sure that 'Chapter and Verse' became exactly what the guys wanted it to become, you somehow can't get rid of the feeling that there's still so much hidden potential left. So let's hope that after the statement about not actively searching for a new drummer, this verses won't lead into the funeral of our friends, but at least to one last chapter from them.
