Fearing : "Shadow"

Yeah I am know I am expected to keep up with everything dark, particularlly when it might fall close to the bounds of what could be construed as goth. While this band from California is not goth, they do play a cavernous version of post - punk that is darker than those more content with the punk side of the equation. They have a great guitar tone. The album sounds awesome as well. The production is some of the best I have heard for this sort of thing. They nail capturing the mood of the 80s this genre owes it's existence to without sacraficing sound quality. The vocals are the band's one week spot. On "Catacombs" the work pretty well. They tend to be blanketed in effects. This is good news considering how they are more spoken than sung in a dead pan baritone . Not a Ian Curtis rip off, but not singing as much as Eldritch.

They are not a shoe gaze band , but draw inspiration from it on "Pictured Perfect" . It has more of an atmospheric drone. The manage to balance out sonic shimmer with tension going into "Still Working Hard" . This is where it is evident the vocals are a one trick pony. Not totally tiresome at this point. They are working off more of a sound than a song here. The guitar playing is great and in many ways compensates for their short comings in other areas. "Sherbert" picks up the pace. It took a third listen to this album before this song began to catch on with me. The monotone narrative, not doing much for me at this point. By the time we get to "the Push" the songs have begun to sound the same. It is a good thing the beat to "Good Talks" shifted enough to smooth out that problem. The vocals are not doing anything different.

The vocals drop a little lower on " Trail of Grief" . This contrasts the music that is more upbeat. The more Cocteau Twins like strum of guitar surfaces on "Glow" . Even a marginally more melodic vocals would help at this point. Instead it the same cadence. The bass provides a more ominous under current for "Nothing New". This is perhaps the closest it gets to singing. I will round this down to an 8, as the vocals bore me, though the music is wonderful. They are better than average song writers and things work more often than not are they are better than post punk bands that place more emphasis on the punk side.