EP review: FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS – Exposition: The Five Before The Flames

Goremount Records (Released 11th March 2013)

Exposition: The Five Before The Flames. Five songs written by each individual band member, giving a better insight to their personal characteristics within the dystopian world of Grandomina – a prequel to their debut album ‘Militia Of The Lost’. The tracklist is as follows;
The Pilot: P-train
The Thief: Merchants of Decay
The Mechanist: Handlung (Stargazer)
The Vigilante: Death or Disgrace
The Prince: Diamond Dust and Crimson Reign

Exposition gives quite a different feel than the usual FVK material. Each track has its own atmosphere and sound; a time capsule in which a particular band member has mixed his personal music taste with a streak of creativity and wild ambition into a piece that reflects them and their unique abilities as an individual.

P-Train is opens the EP, a heavy guitar number cleverly combined with acoustic elements,quite different from Merchants of Decay; a slightly slower song, with a more laid-back attitude. Only two tracks in and already, ‘Exposition’ is looking very promising. Next is Handlung which has a pop-like twist to it with a crashing drum beat blended with harmonic vocals. It’s a good halfway mark, and gives a positive momentum towards the next tracks. Death or Disgrace gives a more macabre atmosphere to Exposition, containing a more traditional FVK approach with a killer chorus (if you’ll pardon the pun…) and a fast beat that’s sure to get your foot tapping. To round it all off is Diamond Dust and Crimson Reign which is the icing on the cake – a song packed with great vocal and music contrast, feeling, and a good beat which draws the curtains on Exposition very nicely.

As I mentioned earlier, each track was written by a different member of Fearless Vampire Killers; so here’s my guess:
Drew Woolnough (bass) wrote – The Pilot: P-Train
Luke Illingworth (drums) wrote – The Thief: Merchants of Decay
Shane/Cyrus Barrone (guitar) wrote – The Mechanist: Handlung (Stargazer)
Kier Kemp (vocals/guitar) wrote – The Vigilante: Death or Disgrace
Laurence Beveridge (vocals/guitar) wrote – The Prince: Diamond Dust and Crimson Reign

To summarise, Exposition: The Five before the Flames is a collage of various sounds and enthusiasm. Each track offers a great melody, catchy riffs and an example of FVKs immense hard work. What can I say? They’ve pulled it off again!

*****

Jasmine Ritchie

For fans of: My Chemical Romance, Queen

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