What What

Fair to Midland: Metal? Rock? Idk. Just good.

Posted By: localeye | March 17, 2010 | 1 comment

I find myself bored at times with the usual means of how I go about finding new bands and new music: reading magazines, browsing the usual Internet message boards, attending shows, chasing sounds as they waft from passing cars, etc. This time I went straight to Amazon.com, typed in the names of some bands I like and looked at that very magical line of information at the bottom that reads “customers that bought this item also bought”…this band and this band and this band…
My search was based on the band Dredg. Maybe you know Dredg, maybe you don’t—but if you don’t, you should- and Fair to Midland rose to the surface as one of the those magical picks of Amazon’s vast marketing brain. Immediately, I liked the name, the album cover, and I was off to listening to one-minute clips from their album Fable From a Mayfly: What I tell You Three Times Is True. Sold! (Not literally.) Download! (For free.)
Fable From a Mayfly is the first major release for Fair To Midland on Serj Tankian’s (lead singer of System of A Down) label, Serjical Strike. I’ve seen reviews and descriptions calling Fair To Midland a “progressive metal”, or “alternative metal” (What is alternative metal, anyway?) But, I’m not one to tag things as “metal” just because they use distorted guitars at times and/or the singer might be a growl on one song. Metal is its own entity, and since I really, really love metal, I’m secure in saying that this isn’t it. I might be persuaded to throw out the labels “hard rock”, or even “progressive rock”, but not “metal.”

The first thing that grabs my attention about this album is singer, Darroh Sudderth’s vocals. He possesses a great vocal range with the ability to reach some very high highs at times, but he manages to refrain from being overly annoying. If you’re a fan of RUSH, Coheed & Cambria, or Adam Lambert and the Chipmunks, you will dig him- especially since he can leap into these registers very quickly.

The music itself is subtle at times and songs like “Vice/Versa” and “April Fools and Eggmen” develop an ambient mood before really kicking in, and a song like “Say When” is reminiscent of bands like V.A.S.T. and Tears for Fears. I’m listening to this album for what may be the hundredth time as I write this review, and at the moment it reminds of so many bands: Dredg, The Postman Syndrome, Coheed & Cambria, The Mayan Factor, Dogsled. Some of the songs are definitely more “in your face” from the beginning; “Dance of the Manatee” and “A Seafarer’s Knot” start hard and keep the pace going with some great vocal melodies and quirky arrangements that have not failed to keep interested. The band recognizes that typical verse/chorus formulae can get boring at times, and the members of Fair To Midland build interest by continually shifting the musical dynamics and structural elements of their compositions instead of resorting to basic arrangements. I do find the overall production to the album to be a little on the weak side. It is somewhat thin and not very robust in the low end, but the arrangements and execution makes up for those moments where the man behind the board lets the listener down.
In closing, I’ll add that this is definitely an album worth picking up with the nice weather just around the corner. You can blast it through your car stereo and let others enjoy it without their permission. How else will they find out about new music?
RATING: 3.5/5 lowered car windows