EP REVIEW: FUTURE STATIC - FATALIST
“ The EP is fury and confusion, and is about the realisation that just because you want an answer, doesn’t mean you find one. Sometimes life continues to throw dirt on you, and no matter how hard you try, you’re powerless to stop it” - so as vocalist Bri Marsh explains - "If you can’t get even, just get mad.""
Bri Marsh - Vocals
Kira Neil - Bass
Ryan Qualizza - Guitar
Jack Smith - Guitar
Jackson Trudel - Drums
The opening track, Growth,
is a simply gorgeous 2 minute instrumental track to introduce the EP, and is a perfect example of the emotional impression that sound and tempo can make - from soft, calm, and somber, to dramatic, intense, fierce. Oddly enough, this one might be my favourite and I only wish it was longer, because it’s just so gorgeous to sit and listen to.
Growth opens with a softer, slow intro, guitar, drums, and piano gradually coming in and perfectly building up, pushing and pulling before a heavier drop that eventually fades out again down to just a simple sombre piano, leading us back around as an outro before the powerful start to the EP’s first released single, ‘Choke’.
Choke
was the first release from EP that came to us with a dramatic music video featuring only 4 band members before they came to their current fully formed five.
Choke was indeed a gorgeous first introduction to the band and their sound, with Bri Marsh’s confident vocals, comprehensive drums, and rich guitar, bass, and backing vocal tracks - just like the rest of the EP.
The track features lyrics depicting ’the constant fear that every good thing is temporary’. Vocalist Bri Marsh explains that “believing that you don’t deserve good things creates self-sabotage. ‘Choking on the smoke’ of a fire you lit yourself, believing that even if you didn’t, it would have crashed and burned anyway.” (WallofSound)
Bri also gives us a slightly heavier vocal taste with a hint of a scream, the first of many on the record, before taking us out with the last line -
The final lyric;
‘I’m crying a river just to drown myself again’
is interesting on its own in that, while it creates a completely opposite visual to the previously portrayed fire and smoke, the statement still holds the same meaning -surrounding self sabotage and destruction.
To further extract; might this parallel then hint to the idea that all suffering is different and yet somehow the same? Perhaps further then, that there is a way for us to come together regardless of our individual struggles and experiences? That reflection on its own - and whether it is even accurate or not - also points to another beauty of music and songwriting, and even just art in general; that it can hold multiple different meanings to different people, but regardless of its original intention, all are valid in their personal meaning to each individual.
Who knows, maybe I’m personally just thinking too hard/projecting/not making sense at all.
Dead End
is the second single from the EP, which also now has a music video (with a flashing lights warning) including lighting, colour, SFX, editing, and incredible animation work by Liam Davidson (LordMedia).
The track features another powerful introduction that leads us toward middle sections with hints towards the band’s slightly more metal influences.
A miniscule and perhaps trivial note, but a note nonetheless, Dead End also features a funky little synthy solo twinkle around the 2:38 mark that always has me pricking my ears up - an interesting little addition that also adds an extra factor to the musical pause, giving just that little more to the impact of the following kickoff.
The last minute of the track builds on an instrumental lead up into a heavy drop screaming section, where Bri shows off some serious husky screaming pipes to finish off the track.
“‘Dead End’ encapsulates a major theme of Fatalist; the idea that no matter what you do or how hard you try, life will continue to throw things at you, and there are days when it feels like the only place your life is headed is for that dead end,” explains Marsh, who says the song was written for those struggling to speak out about how they’re feeling.
Released in the midst of an amalgamation of worldwide changes and struggles, Marsh says “It’s a bleak look at dark times that we hope encourages people to start a conversation. It’s about the pain that comes from living in your own head. ‘Dead End’ felt like the right song to put out in the world right now. It’s a scary, uncertain place. We want to stand up and say that, especially in confusing times like these, it’s okay to be scared and angry and unsure. You’re not alone.”
(MusicFeeds)
Never Miss
features the EP’s first taste of male vocals from Ryan Qualizza, and is a song depicting the personal growth and development after cutting a toxic individual off and watching them pick their next victim.
An absolute favourite line of mine from the entire EP has got to be;
‘and for the sake of my mental health, I gotta say I hope you burn in hell’.
This statement on its own is a testimony I’m sure many have experienced and can thoroughly agree with.
Sections of this track once again also give us a taste of Bri’s heavier vocal range, from whispering straight through to screaming in the short bridge section, and again in the final ending statement;
‘we all go out the same’.
Adaptive Manipulator
is a super short track of only one minute, opening with firm, steady guitar, and once again a brief feature of Qualizza’s screaming. While it is the shortest track on the EP, it could also be the angriest, the only lyrics being an angry ‘you gather so much hate in me’ leading up to one final cry out from both Bri and Ryan before a sudden cut-off-ending.
The Fatalist
starts with a classic intro with compressed guitar and drums before a full-volumed drop and guitar section leading into the slow & soft first verse. The Fatalist describes scenes of losing yourself and giving up on the possibility of recovery.
With slower verses and higher paced pre-chorus and chorus sections, The Fatalist is another great example of the push and pull of compelling, quality songwriting.
Like the rest of the EP, this title track contains clear heavy references to mental health and personal issues, but touches on the more serious potential result of such issues. Lines such as
‘I promise to stay if you promise to talk me down’
seem to allude to ideas of self-harm and suicide, which a large majority of people, including those in the music industry - and particularly, it seems, the heavier genres - are affected by on a regular basis in one way or another.
Gorgeous almost ethereal backing vocal tracks breech from underneath the main vocals and add a slight ghostly element to the track - even reminding me of the opening track Growth. We border on coming full circle as The Fatalist ends with a slow soft fade out of strings and guitar.
Overall:
Compared to their first debut with tracks like ‘Slow’ and ‘According To Plan’ in 2016, it’s clear that the outfit has well and truly found their sound and honed their skills - and while access to a decent studio and producer makes all the difference to a final track, Bri’s development in her vocal practice and confidence since then is also clearly evident.
From start to finish, the brilliantly written & mixed tracks build perfectly throughout the EP, gradually introducing more and more nods to heavy influences as it plays through.
Personally, I just really love the whole record. I struggled writing this up because I just wanted to listen and listen and listen, and that was it.
I legitimately hit my head on the wall behind me when bopping back and forth to the intense and emotional tunes - so yeah, it’s a literal banger.