In Fear and Faith
Symphonies


4.0
excellent

Review

by IAmKickass USER (21 Reviews)
May 11th, 2011 | 15 replies


Release Date: 2011 | Tracklist

Review Summary: A large scale, original and creative little entry that does nothing for the band, but offers up something different for fans of the group.

In Fear and Faith are one of those bands that rarely ever have the opportunity to separate themselves amongst their genre. Their music is nothing original, but throughout their career they’ve managed to pull off a few fancy little things that are worth mentioning, one of them being the pirate based sound of their first couple releases. The Voyages EP and debut full length Your World on Fire we’re all lead around the bands ability to capture a time period within the sound of their music. The lyrical content and wide use of electronic effects helped to really give the band their own signature style. Moving forward though, their follow up release Imperial completely rid of the pirate sound the band was so well known for.

After the release of Imperial, screamer Cody Anderson left the band, leaving Scott Barnes as the only front man and to take on all duties both him and Cody we’re responsible for. Symphonies features no new material from the band, but 7 new versions of the best songs from both the bands albums. Hearing this, you begin to ask yourself, what exactly is the point here? Well, I thought the same exact thing up until the end of my first listen. It’s pretty awesome to see a band do something different, and the idea behind Symphonies is certainly original. All the songs the band chose to do translate into the symphonic sound extraordinarily well, though they must have taken a lot of re-formatting in the vocals, the band found a way to do it without making it sound awkward.

A wide use of instruments and sounds were used here to gain that large symphony feel, layered over one another is grand pianos, violins and pounding drums which all equal up to a grand scale sound. All of these sounds a style come together so well, and it’s noticed instantly in each and every song. There is never a problem with repetitiveness between songs, which you would think could become a problem because of the main sound of the EP. A few of the songs here have been extended to a very noticeable level. “The Taste of Regret” originally ending around the 4 minute mark has now been extended to over 6 minutes, filled with interesting string structures and a smart use of electronic based effects which fill in all that extra time that has been put on.

Vocalist Scott Barnes has done a terrific job here, while he’s had a noticeable voice change over the past couple albums, he’s still a great singer and uses his voice to the best of his ability in these tracks. Everyone needs a little help here, and he’s called in a good deal of friends to back him up in each of the tracks. Guest appearances by Nick Martin of DRUGS, Caleb Shomo of Attack Attack!, Craig Owens of DRUGS and Tyler “Telle” Smith of The Word Alive bring an awesome amount of variety to the vocals in most of the songs. A lot of these appearances are screams to take place of what Cody Anderson would have originally done, but it all sounds good and they’re placed wisely to never feel like there’s just to many different vocal aspects going on here.

As you sit down and listen to Symphonies, you are pulled in by it’s sound even though the songs are familiar, they seem new all over again. I find myself marveled at the sound that has been pulled off here, and In Fear and Faith are one of the very few bands that could successfully pull this off with no problem. Symphonies won’t give the band any new fans, but it’s an original little entry in their discography that’s nice to listen too every now and then. My advice to you, sit back and just let the scale of these tracks capture you like they did me, it works.



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user ratings (91)
3.3
great
other reviews of this album
TBliss2 (2)
Symphonies suffers from attempting to stretch an idea too far....



Comments:Add a Comment 
pmmets07
May 12th 2011


5984 Comments


cool review. i'll probably listen to a few of these tracks on youtube

whywontyoudie
May 12th 2011


3067 Comments


review is good, but i dislike this band.

TBliss
May 12th 2011


987 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

I reviewed this for a website I work for, I thought it was so boring. Removing all the muscle of the guitar really shows that the song cant hold up on their own, and the tracks just blend into eachother. They try and stretch one idea over seven songs, and it just becomes really dull.

botb
May 12th 2011


18432 Comments


haven't cared about this band since their ep before they were signed tbh

MalleusMaleficarum
May 12th 2011


16396 Comments


" Guest appearances by Nick Martin of DRUGS, Caleb Shomo of Attack Attack!, Craig Owens of DRUGS and Tyler “Telle” Smith of The Word Alive"

sound great !

MalleusMaleficarum
May 12th 2011


16396 Comments


sounds great ! *

tkxxx7
May 12th 2011


6168 Comments


lol

smallz362
May 12th 2011


85 Comments


At first I thought this was going to be just a lame re-hash of previous matetrial with little to nothing new. I am glad to say I was suprised as well.

DoubtGin
May 12th 2011


6879 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

ugh

pmmets07
May 12th 2011


5984 Comments


i was really bored by the songs i heard off this

North0House2
May 12th 2011


6153 Comments


Donde esta el track list?

IllPromiseYouThat
May 13th 2011


427 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I was going to write this exact same review. pos. good review and great ep. I loved it.

sunbunman
May 16th 2011


13 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

epic review to go with an equally epic album

youdontknow37
May 30th 2011


3 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

this is so boring. maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't put out the original versions of the songs before these. they just seem so forced and the vocal styles don't mesh well with their half-assed "symphonies"

lolcatzwolfay
June 29th 2011


96 Comments


Great review brotha. But I thought this EP was sort of a filler release. Kinda stupid if you ask me.



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