Short Reviews [The Fierce And The Dead - 2021 - "Part 1 / On VHS"]

Although I have been a huge fan of TFATD for some years now, I must confess to having never heard their early material as my first introduction to the band was their second album, 2013’s ‘Spooky Action’. This means I missed out not only on their debut album but some early EPs, but that has now been resolved with this new release which features the first two EPs in full, re-mastered by TFATD bassist Kevin Feazey. This means we start with their first ever release, 2010’s ‘Part 1’ which consists of one extended instrumental track of the same name (more than 18 minutes long). At this point the band were a trio, comprising guitarist Matt Stevens, Kev Feazey (bass, synths) and drummer Stuart Marshall. Their sound back in the early days was clean, with far more space, and while interesting it is possible with hindsight to look back and see that in many ways, here we have a band still looking for the sound and what they wanted to achieve. When the band really start to kick off it starts to sound more like the band we know and love today but realistically it was only with the addition of second guitarist Steve Clayton that the band really began to develop their signature style. That the second EP kicked off with “666…6” is something of a surprise as I did not realise that this song had been around for so long as it is still something they perform today. With wonderfully distorted bass and crunching drums, the guitars come in over the top and hearing this straight after “Part 1” it is quite a shock to the system as the band have changed dramatically in a very short period of time. Interestingly, this is again something which can be viewed better in hindsight as the band were moving in different directions as they searched for their signature so while the original songs are more cognisant of what they would become, the remixes of “On VHS” don’t fit in at all, which shows just how the band were in flux at the time. While I would hesitate to recommend this release to someone who is not already aware of the band, to the fan this is simply essential.