Album Review: Funeral For a Friend - Chapter and Verse
Chapter and Verse is the record that says what everyone else is thinking, but what no one dares translate into words. Unequivocally self-bearing with no restraints, Funeral For A Friend’s seventh studio album is like a beating heart ripped from a chest.
Self-loathing, wealth inequality, and past relationships are only some of the topics covered throughout the tracks. The thoughts are presented in such a way that they hit an inner part of the common human psyche. The lyrics reach to the depths of the soul and drag the words up that refuse to be spoken, refuse to be acknowledged, and lays them out naked and exposed.
The songs flit through stages of anger, resentment, self-hatred, and regret, eventually piling up into a whole body brimmed with passion. Powerful guitars attack in combination with frontman Matthew Davies-Kreye’s raw agonized screams, while the steady beat of the drum pounds as a backdrop.
The album is beautifully haunting – pure emotion spilling like a cascade through elegant melodies and complicated riffs. Each track is cohesive to the whole, yet keeps its individuality through thoughtful lyrics and distinct tones. Some are angry and hard-hitting, while others punch with emotion through a soft sorrowful tone, but each song has its own demons to be released with no regrets and no apologies.
The lyrics are endlessly thoughtful and eloquent with lines such as “nothing is original, it’s all been done to death” and “sometimes when the lights go out, I pretend I’m someone else”. ‘Modern Excuse of a Man’ is angry, while ‘The Jade Tree Years Were My Best’ is reminiscent, and ‘Stand By Me For the Millionth Time’ is resentful. The listener can’t help but feel like a voyeur, accepting the same heartbreaks into their chest as they progress through the journey of the record.
Chapter and Verse bottles all of the unsaid words that haunt the mind at the end of day, and revives them into a masterful, emotional, record.
Rating: 8.7/10
Read the original story at: http://audioaddictmag.com/2015/01/20/review-funeral-for-a-friend-chapter-and-verse/
