Fuck You and Die: Elements of Instability – Reviewed
I know, I know, Fuck You and Die is an absolutely ridiculous band name and the music that comes along with it should be pretty crappy too right? Not at all. Their new album is actually really good and if I somehow manage to make a top ten list for the year, this will most likely be a part of it.
If I had to use one word to describe this album, it would be Necrophagist. Since that band has seen fit to make us wait for a new record until Half-Life 3 drops or the Philadelphia Eagles win a championship or something else equally improbable, Fuck You and Die has risen from the depths of hell to fill the void left in Necrophagist’s absence. Let me tell you, they do a damn good job of it. From the guitar tone to the vocals and the production, this album sounds a lot like it could be the Necrophagist’s successor. Here is the first song I heard by them:
Crisp riffs that are distinguishable from one another permeate the entire album with the vocalist’s growls and occasional shrieks following in tow. The drumming is top notch as well; it’s not super fast melt your face off drumming like a lot of tech death bands have, but that’s OK because it isn’t necessary. FYAD realize what a lot of tech death bands do not: you don’t need to have pummeling machine gun drumming and guitars that are all over the place for people to enjoy your music. While bands like Hour of Pennance are very good at doing just that, it can become repetitive at times and leave one wishing for a bit more substance. FYAD recognizes the need for variety and that’s one of the first things that caught my attention when I started listening to their new album Elements of Instability. I’m going to use the first track, “Security Through Obscurity” as an example. The song starts off with a very catchy riff that does an excellent job of hooking the listener in before the vocalist’s growls come into play. Normally with this genre, the song would pick up to blistering fast speed but instead, around 50 seconds in, we get a slower more melodic section. This then leads into a brand new riff that eventually evolves into blast beats and the song moving to warp speed again. Following that, the riff that started the song shows up again and leads into a very nice solo which serves as a great transition to the end of the song. It’s this variety in song structure that for me, really makes it one of the stand outs in the sea of otherwise generic tech death releases that drop each year.
Don’t get me wrong, I love insane drumming and weedily deedily solos just as much as the next tech death fan, but every now and then it’s nice to have a fresh breath of air. FYAD are just that. These guys excel at writing songs that are technical without sacrificing song structure and I highly recommend taking a look at their new album. I will also point out that the production on this album is tight. It doesn’t suffer from being too loud or too quiet and each instrument, vocals included, can be heard clearly. While I think there could have been more variety in the songs, that is really only a small gripe about an album that I otherwise found extremely enjoyable. I don’t think it is going to earn any album of the year awards competing with the likes of Fallujah, Archspire, Artificial Brain and Beyond Creation among others, but it is still a very solid album and I’m excited to see what these dudes do next.
Packed to the brim with excellent riffs, top tier drumming and fantastic guitar work, this is an album that any fan of technical death metal should enjoy listening to and is a great start to what is sure to be a successful career for these guys. So, if you are one of those metalheads getting increasingly impatient waiting for the new Necrophagist album to drop (who isnt?), take a look at Elements of Instability and let it fill that void for you. Do you agree that these guys are a spiritual successor to Necrophagist or are they something else? Let me know in the comments. I’ll leave you with another song by these dudes.
Mr. Jack Bauer gives Elements of Instability by Fuck You and Die 1/5 Flushes.
