Funeral For A Friend - Your History Is Mine (2002-2009)

[Detomah]

WELSH rockers Funeral For A Friend deliver their first career retrospective in the form of the 16-track Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009 – but while certainly packed with monster riffs, plenty of Goth-like wailing and the odd moment of melody, it’s a laboured listen that’s short on much diversity.

Formed in 2002, Funeral For A Friend have quickly established themselves as one of Britain’s biggest rock acts, releasing four albums and generally becoming a popular mainstay of festivals such as Download.

Yet while they undoubtedly deliver the stadium-sized monster rock tracks with relish and possess a sound that’s equally at ease on either side of the Atlantic, their music suffers from the same feeling of over-familiarity that blights a lot of heavier rock acts.

Vocalist Matthew Davies and co seem to think that so long as there’s a fair smattering of genre requirements, the fans will swarm.

Hence, opening blasts such as 10:45 Amsterdam Conversations and This Year’s Most Open Heartbreak just pound away at your nerves and eventually get on them!

They even repeat this trick late on, with new tracks such as Captains of Industry and Wrench resorting to the same type of heavy verse-melodic chorus structure of their earliest material.

The compilation briefly rallies during its middle section, when a more radio-friendly, melody based style of songwriting creeps into their music. Hence, tracks like Red Is The New Black and Streetcar make a better fist of mixing heaviness with restraint.

History, meanwhile, is the standout track… a power ballad that builds really nicely amid decent verse structure, strong vocals and polished guitar work.

Into Oblivion and Walk Away also emerge as highlights before the general aura of heaviness kicks back in and the album resorts to formula.

As Funeral For A Friend look to begin the next phase of their career, they might want to keep in mind that a little bit more diversity would go a long way.

Download picks: Streetcar, History, Into Oblivion, Walk Away

Track listing:

1. 10:45 Amsterdam Conversations
2. This Year’s Most Open Heartbreak
3. Juneau
4. She Drove Me To Daytime Television
5. Escape Artists Never Die
6. Red Is The New Black
7. Streetcar
8. Roses For The Dead
9. History
10. Into Oblivion (Reunion)
11. Walk Away
12. Kicking And Screaming
13. No Honour Among Thieves
14. Built To Last
15. Wrench
16. Captains Of Industry

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