Australia has been one of my favorite nations for the kind of heavy music they have churned out over the past few years. Feed Her to the Sharks join ranks with Parkway Drive, Thy Art Is Murder, Northlane, Karnivool and Dead Letter Circus as a promising new band with their sophomore record doing the rounds after its recent release. Feed Her to the Sharks is Andrew Vanderzalm (Lead Vocals / Piano / Keys), Kim Choo (Guitar / Synth / FX), Rob Davies (Bass Guitar / Backing Vocals), Marinos Katsanevas (Lead Guitar) and Jan Benkwitz (Drums).
The nomenclature for the current batch of Metalcore/Hardcore bands always beg more than a frown or two. And given the irritating amount of the autotuning and uninspiring “breakdowncore” song-writing approach that usually comes along with them, it is justified to some extent. However, Feed her to the Sharks (hereon FHTTS) is one of those outfits that are a textbook definition of the quote “Do not judge book by its cover”, and all that. There is more to what FHTTS accomplishes than the usual “feel my pain and hear my autotune again” band does.
Chockful of good, solid groove and a few tasty hooks up their sleeve, FHTTS kick-start the album with the title track and you better believe they mean business. 2nd track “Memory of You” takes a slight detour into EDM meets Screamo territory but it would be an exaggeration to say that it is completely unbearable. Personally, I prefer less clean vocals in my Metal, so it would be a bit biased to rule the tracks with clean vocal work as a turn off. I like breakdowns with my cuppa as much as every other Hardcore/Metalcore aficionado out there and just for that, the tracks are just about aces in my book. Especially since they don’t overdo them.
The only reasonable flaw with the record would be the tracks get very much predictable after awhile. The growled verses, clean-sung choruses and breakdown-filled bridge to back it all up formula gets a tad annoying after the first few spins.
There are traces of Electronic Dance Music scattered throughout the album and the band knows how to put these influences to good use. The upgrade from “The Beauty of Falling” (their debut album) would be a heavier sounding guitar mix and the interspersed low gutturals and high screeches of which the former sounds more effective than the latter. Composition wise, the band definitely shows as much promise as a nascent band just two albums old should. Most of the faults that people would find with the album can be credited more to the severely criticized nuances that plague the genre, than anything else.
With stand-out tracks like “Sink or Swim” and “F**k Melbourne” in their kitty, FHTTS sound more promising than ever and with their increasing maturity. I for one would not be surprised if they are hailed as one of the most looked-up artists from Aussie-land in recent times. FHTTS’ chops cannot be ruled out as affectations, just hit up the link for “Buried Alive” before you call them generic.
– Aurko
