Review Summary: Funeral for a Friend continue their evolution by combining the harshness of their previous album with the sense of melody their older material had to great effect.
Following their excellent return to form album Welcome Home Armageddon, which returned the band to their Post Hardcore roots, Funeral for a Friend released Conduit, an album which (for the most part at least) abandoned the sense of melody that their earlier albums contained in exchange for a harsher, more Hardcore based sound. While it was still a great album, the heavy/melodic dynamic of old was missed. For Conduit's follow up, Chapter and Verse, Funeral for a Friend add melody back into the equation to great effect.
Musically, it retains the aggressiveness contained on Conduit and combines it with the melodic aspects contained on their earlier albums. This mix works really well, and the songs stand up well alongside the older material. '1%', for instance, wouldn't feel too out of place if it was on Welcome Home Armageddon or Hours. Another highlight, 'Donny', is up there as one of Funeral's strongest songs to date, containing a perfect balance between the heavy and melodic elements and some really catchy guitar riffs.
On top of this, the band have also adopted a slight influence of 90's era emo into the music. Lead single 'You've Got a Bad Case of the Religions' sounds like Lifetime with a harder edge whilst still sounding like a Funeral for a Friend song, and closing track 'The Jade Tree Years Were My Best' sounds like a love letter to 90's emo.
Another thing that was lacking from Conduit, the twin guitar dynamic, returns here in full force. There are plenty of moments on this album which allow both guitarists Kris Roberts and Gavin Burrough's guitar work to shine through. Great examples of this are 'You've Got a Bad Case of the Religions', 'Pencil Pusher', '1%', 'After All These Years... Like A Lightbulb Going Off In My Head', and 'Donny'.
Rather than working with Romesh Dodangoda (who had produced all their albums since 2008s Memory and Humanity), the band instead chose to work with Lewis Johns (whom has produced albums for Goodtime Boys, The Tidal Sleep, and Gnarwolves to name a few) to produce the album. This was a great move, as the production of this album compliments these songs really well, giving them a raw, organic feel which gives off a great impression of what these songs might sound like when played live.
While Matt has retained his more husky vocals that he utilised on Conduit, they sound a lot stronger and more confident here than they did on that album. As well as this, there are plenty of moments on the album which allows for Matt's more melodic vocals to shine through, namely the chorus of 'You've Got a Bad Case of the Religions', '1%', acoustic song 'Brother', and album closer 'The Jade Tree Years Were My Best'.
This is a truly brilliant album which continues the ongoing evolution of the band. By bringing the melodic aspects of their music back and combining it with the rawness of Conduit to great effect, Funeral have created another great album to add to their already impressive resume, and show that they still have it 13 years and 7 albums into their career.
Stand out tracks:
Stand By My for the Millionth Time
You've Got a Bad Case of the Religions
1%
Donny
The Jade Tree Years Were My Best
