Demo-lition Derby: The Fevered

The Fevered
Vestige
Those of you who were crapping your Pampers at the time may not really appreciate just how revolutionary the whole Gothenberg sound was now that it’s been endlessly rehashed by eleventy-billion creatively bankrupt hardcore bands. Let me set the scene for you: Sometime around 1997 my college roommate comes flying into the dorm room gibbering incoherently about some band named In Flames and their latest album The Jester Race that I just had to hear. Keep in mind at the time brutality reigned uber alles and any hint of accessibility or a catchy tune was strictly verboten. To write albums larded with hummable melodies was almost an act of treason. We had literally heard nothing like it before and it would send us spiraling into the melodic depths of Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates and Sentenced.
I dredge up all this pointless get-off-my-lawn reminiscing because Australia’s The Fevered sound a tad like Dark Tranquillity.
Ok, they sound exactly like Dark Tranquillity.
Like if somebody was cloning Mikael Stanne and Niclas Sundin at some secret Outback facility, forcing them to write melodically-charged Swede-metal tunes as some bizarre Boys from Brazil-style experiment. While I can’t really recommend this six song EP for any other reason than pure nostalgia--the songs are defiantly 15 years out of style--the tunes are well written and performed with aplomb. “To Frailty” is a perfectly composed time capsule of the era, the growled chorus shines, the melodic leads are sterling against a bouncing rhythm. Then there’s low key eight minute kiss off “Sever the World,” which is exactly the kind of choice Dark Tranquillity would have made in the same place – and that will either be the selling point or the flashing warning signal, depending on your preferences.
You can check it out for yourself as a pay what you want download on Bandcamp (linked above). Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to dig out my copies of North From Here and Whoracle.