By: Rich Buley
Final Days Society | website | facebook | bandcamp |
Released on July 1, 2015 via Bandcamp
Hailing from the southern Swedish town of Växjö, the post/progressive rock five piece Final Days Society released their third long-player Icebreaker at the beginning of last month. With a band moniker perhaps suggesting a support group for the apocalyptically challenged, and album and track titles largely dealing with the impact of the polar ice caps melting, it is very apparent where these guys are coming from, both metaphorically and geographically.
Musically, Final Days Society sit somewhere between Explosions In The Sky’s elegant, elongated meanderings, Sigur Ros’ glacial ambience, and fellow Swedes Jeniferever’s glistening, understated shoegaze. What sets them apart from many of their other soundalike contemporaries however, and makes them a very interesting proposition, is their use of vocals, mainly in the shape of singing bassist Suwat Khanh.
We get underway with ‘Drowner’, which begins in celestial drone and one single bass chord later and I am immediately thinking of the inestimable ‘Glósóli’. That song continues to be Sigur Ros’ finest moment, has reduced me to tears on a number of occasions (especially live) and the fact that Final Days Society can instantly deliver a similar ear load of windswept beauty has me hooked and reaching for the Thesaurus. Although far less intense in its delivery, and less ferocious in its ascension, it is a beautifully evocative opening to the record, with the excellently mixed twin vocals adding depth and colour.
‘Drifter’ arrives seamlessly, with organ, keys and Khanh’s plaintive voice combining wonderfully, before guitar and percussion take hold of the track and build to a spine-tingling crescendo, with the addition of brass horns being the ice on this particularly glorious Scandinavian peak. It may again have many of the characteristics of the Icelandic behemoths that came before them, but Final Days Society play with such skill and utter conviction that the similarity in style simply doesn’t matter.
The ten minute ‘Icebreaker’ begins in rockier, upbeat territory, with the three guitarists in the band enjoying a brief sojourn with their effects pedals, as everything then drops out and a voice-effected Khanh is alone with a single, sparkling guitar line. Not for long, however, as the noise makers in the band slow burn and then explode the track into a relatively standard post rock motif. That is until an unknown vocal sample telling us that “it will never be the same” suddenly appears and the band then raise the roof in captivating fashion.
‘Overburdened Companions’ ambles along initially with Hammond organ to the fore, and then develops into another lovely climax. However, it is perhaps the track that is most let down by the very basic lyrical content, something that is unfortunately noticeable on the rest of the album and does take away some of the exquisite, ethereal ambience that underpins the record. Let’s face it, Jónsi Birgisson could be singing about fluffy bunny rabbits and getting home in time for tea for all most of us know, but his other-wordly delivery in a largely made-up language does allow Sigur Ros to retain that alluring sense of mystery and imagination.
‘At Peace, At Last’ is, by some distance, the most aggressive and intense sounding track on the album, and yet effortlessly manages to preserve the band’s melodic expression and identity, while closer ‘Debris’ has a message of hope initially set against sweeping, symphonic electronics, until the band go into overdrive with the perhaps inevitable, effects laden close.
Final Days Society have recorded an album that undoubtedly wears its influences on its sleeve, but here is a band full of integrity, delivering often quite beautiful music in a passionate, evocative way. Notwithstanding my question mark over the lyrics, it is a record with depth that benefits hugely from multiple listens, and will continue to see heavy rotation in the Buley household over the coming weeks and months.
