Fight Amp, Manners and Praise
Fight Amp, are back once again, re-emerging from dank Jersey basements with a great follow up to their stellar debut, Hungry for Nothing. Now a three piece after the departure of guitarist Rebecca Burchette, the band’s sophomore effort, while missing Burchette’s vocal presence, sees the guys hitting their stride in form with more of a focus on the noise rock aspect of their sound.
With shorter songs and more focused energy, Fight Amp still deliver gritty guitar tones, thick and heavy bass and thundering drums with as much fervor as they did on their debut. There is a bit more groove thrown into the mix as well, that will have you nodding your shaggy head along with the sludgy tones and rhythms. The shift in focus, I think, will be a good one for a band that has flown below the radar for the most part — bringing in elements of from the likes of Baroness and Kylesa will help them make that jump.
Bad Listener I
Fight Amp get this album off with “Bad Listener I” that has a great, repetitive vibe and catchy chorus. The guitars are driving and thickly layered with plenty of texture while the bass rolls and rumbles in the not-so-distant background. This is a pretty beefy, yet droning track that makes a dramatic shift at 1:48 to a driving, noise rock behemoth.
Time Is Money
“Time Is Money” takes on a slightly darker, yet more rambunctious feel as it plunders your ears right from the start. This song is full of burly bass, thundering drums and raw, driving guitars. This one minute long instrumental has plenty of groove and sets the tone going forward with the album.
Be Safe
More basement pummeling keeps the momentum churning along with this next song as the vocals take a bit of a back seat to the thick guitars and rhythms. There is definitely more focus on the noise aspect of the band’s sound as showcased in “Be Safe,” yet still has plenty of groove.
Elbows Off
I love the bass/drum combination that starts this next song off as reverb fades into chugging riffs. The vocals do their best to shout above the crashing drums and rumbling bass. There are some nice tempo shifts throughout the song to break up what could have become a monotonous dirge of guitars. This is definitely one of the standout songs on the album.
Don’t I Know You?
The guitars on this one have a Helmet-like tone to them as the band pummels their way through a raucous, punk tinged bit of rock. This is one of the quicker paced and more powerful songs on the album with drums delivered with seriously heavy hands. The shorter song structures really give each track that much more of a one-two punch effect. Well done!
Faith In Man
“Faith In Man” has a great opening with all kinds of guitar noise, rumbling bass and heavy drums that take on a feel like that from the latest stuff by Kylesa. The moshing riffs at :43 are beefy and segue into distantly shouted vocals that are nearly drowned in the wall of sound that the band produces.
Bitter Son
Another bass fueled start, gets “Bitter Son” off to a rolling start as the guitars come in with a slightly higher tone. The vocals are once again blended into the band’s sound nicely so as to make the music seem that much thicker. More rolling bass lines as the guitars quiet to background noise help break up the flow a bit, but also provide moments of clarity for diving head first into the churning noise.
Go Getter
I love the opening riff and rock vibe that “Go Getter” has throughout. The vocals are a little more confrontational and deeper than the rest of the album so far. This is one of those songs that I keep coming back to over and over. The thick, chugging bass and riffage toward the end of the song are head-banging fun to say the least. Awesome song!
Magic Words
“Magic Words” has some of the more creative drum work and tempo shifts fond on the album. The song feels as though Helmet and Kylesa got together and conceived a nasty, gritty bastard offspring. Keeping the vocals to a minimum on this one really make it a stand out track. The band has certainly matured in their song writing and this song is evidence of it. Hell, there’s even a bit of a lead to end out the track.
Half a Holiday
Now this is the type of song I would love to have blasting at one f those high school basement parties we had back in the day. It’s thick. It’s punishing. Yet it’s catchy as hell and that would have all us heathens jumping around like animals in a feeding frenzy. And is also just the right length to keep the most ADD affected of you out there at attention.
Extra Regular
“Extra Regular” is a pretty decent track, but after “Half a Holiday” it doesn’t quite pack the same punch. That said it does have some sweet guitar work throughout it that stands out nicely on the album. The more cleanly sung vocals on the song also break it out of the noise rock mold the band likes. Weighing in at over three and a half minutes the track is almost of epic length when compared to the rest of the album. There’s really a great deal of stuff going on in here that will take a couple of listens to fully appreciate.
School
Discordant guitars and rolling bass figure strongly in “School,” a song that lays the noise on thick and heavy. It’s a pretty decent song, but it sort of gets lost amongst so many other great songs on the album.
Bad Listener II
The second portion of “Bad Listener” picks up where the first left off with bruising rhythms, reverb and the catchy chanted chorus. The two tracks serve as bookends to a pretty damned good sophomore effort from Fight Amp.
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Additional Notes:
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