Back in 2005 I was unnecessarily stubborn. Locked firmly in a classic rock vacume; my music collection consisted of a variety of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd albums, and not much else. This was exaggerated so much to the extent that I flatly refused to listen to this album based upon the fact that Funeral For A Friend were a pioneering band on the then growing emo scene. In other words: I was a closed-minded musical dick head. It was nice, therefore, to finally listen to this band with a truly open mind.Funeral For A Friend are, in a sense, the band I expected them to be. They encapsulate the dark, melodic sound which became so popular a few years ago. On Hours, the band strike a nice balance between post-hardcore musical arrangements and powerful yet melodic vocals. I like Matt Davies' voice. His vocals are, I suppose, are the driving force behind the album, and provide a distinguishing factor in the bands sound.
One thing which struck me was the band's ability to contrast relatively unaggressive vocals with what is often quite a heavy musical arrangement. On 'All The Rage', for example, the guitar line is often something like what I might expect someone like Bullet For My Valentine to play, what with the drop tunings and frequent 'twiddly bits'. Yet the vocals strike a very different picture. This was odd to me, and I'm suprised it worked so well.
I do like this album. It's quite easy to listen to. But this is sort of a double-edged sword. whereas I have no trouble in listening to this album from start to finish, there is little which I found truly memorable. In fact, I had to listen to it at least three times before I began to recognise any of it. I also found certain tracks quite annoying, 'Drive' in particular. I think it was the 'feeling quite tragic' bit. But now I'm just being petty.
All in all, I certainly like this band. I can imagine that they would put on a pretty good live show and I wouldn't mind seeing them, given the chance. Thinking about it, a lot of good bands have come out of wales in recent years, and Funeral For A Friend certainly fit the category. The most important thing however, is that I am likely to listen to this album in future. I will therefore give it a commendable 3/5, based on the fact that it was good, but none of it expressely stuck in my mind.
Alex x
