Review Summary: Twisted, deranged and unique, Odd How People Shake is a strong debut with a unique style that both hinders and helps the listening experience.
Back when they still marched before flames, Fear Before arrived on the relatively new post-hardcore scene in 2003 with their debut album,
Odd How People Shake. The album was pretty unique back then, as it was characterized by a strong post-hardcore sound, but it also carried distinctive elements of screamo, metalcore and mathcore. Given this ambitious attempt at an original sound, how does Fear Before’s debut stack up after all these years?
When going back to
Odd How People Shake, I’m really surprised by how strong and creative the style is. The aforementioned mixture of several different subgenres makes for a very inspired sound, and the album still comes off as unique and one-of-a-kind after all these years. Most of the songs found on the album are frantic, unrestrained cuts of jagged metallic riffs that jostle in and out of several different structures while the vocals expertly sing, screech and growl at you along the way.
Odd How People Shake has so many tricks up it’s sleeve that you’ll find yourself being pleasantly surprised by the intriguing, unconventional sounds and structures during the album’s runtime.
But although
Odd How People Shake can be praised for having such a strong individualistic style, the problem is that, while every song on the album is good to a certain extent, there are really only a couple of songs that are truly great. There are plenty of songs that are lost in the whirlpool of shifting structures and start-stop guitar riffs, and some songs come off as sounding awkward and clumsy because of it. “Lisbon Girls” and “Motelroom.Grandpiano” are a perfect examples, as the songs really fail to find an identity through all of the deranged riffs and they ultimately fall flat on their faces. Sadly, you’ll find plenty of riffs and parts during several different songs on
Odd How People Shake that aren’t very provoking or energetic, and the overall quality of the album is hurt because of it.
But despite the shifting, schizophrenic structures,
Odd How People Shake still is home to a bunch of great songs. “Fashion Tips Baby” is a short, metallic burst of catchy guitar riffs and vocal lines, while “Sarah Goldfarb…” and “20th Century…” are more complex, chaotic showcases that transcend a number of different styles and moods. “On The Brightside…” is the album’s odd-duck, in that it’s more subdued and poppy sounding, while “Given To Dreams” is a passionate, catchy showcase of duelling vocals and crushing riffs. These songs easily stand out as being the album’s strongest cuts, and they seem to be the only songs that have a strong sense of identity in the midst of Fear Before’s genre and structure splicing.
As far as debut albums go,
Odd How People Shake is fairly impressive. While the album has a strong, original style that takes a very unique perspective on the post-hardcore genre, it’s evident that the band still had a little way to go in terms of structuring a song. Thankfully, they would learn how to control and evolve their style, and they career only got better from here with the chaotic
Art Damage and artistic
The Always Open Mouth. While
Odd How People Shake is mostly the sound of the band putting the pieces together and still finding their way, there is still a handful of great songs to be enjoyed, and the creative sound makes Fear Before’s debut attempt a resounding success and an overall enjoyable effort.
