Funeral for a Friend: Memory and Humanity

"Four Ways to Scream your Name / Between Order and Model", "Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation", "Hours", "Tales Don't Tell Themselves". Chances are, if you've ever stopped by the good ship Funeral for a Friend, you'll have chosen your favourite era.

Somewhat frustratingly, FFAF are a band who refuse to sound remotely similar to themselves on each subsequent release, a tactic which saw them switch from heavy-riffing hardcore-metallers to mainstream soft-rockers over five short years. If you chose either "Four Ways", "Order" or "Casually Dressed" as your favourite, you may as well turn around and start walking now. There's little to see here. If, conversely, you chose "Tales" you should likewise start walking, not for any reason other than you'll need the airflow to help diffuse the redness in your cheeks from the extreme embarrassment you should be experiencing after voicing that opinion.

By process of elimination then, "Hours" fans can rejoice, for the band you once loved before their diversion into epic tales of fishing trips are back once more.

In an odd turn of events, every single release so far plucked from "Memory and Humanity" is amongst the weaker tracks on the album. "Waterfront Dance Club" almost suffocates the latter part of the album as the rhythm section builds up before tailing off into a lacklustre riff which leaves front-man Matt Davies-Kreye desperately searching for a vocal melody with little result. We can only hope he slept in that day at the studio and had to make it up on the spot Circa Survive style.

Likewise "Kicking and Screaming" gets the riff right, the chorus right and then proceeds to smack itself in the face with a bridge section so numbingly devoid of melody that it'll give hope to Liars that there is a place for them in the world.

With five minutes of the album dealt with thus far, that is all we have in terms of negativity. The Welsh boys have followed through on their promises for their first post-major label album. Songs do indeed have a "muscular intensity", the "aggressive vocals" do indeed make an appearance and there is not a discernible fish related concept throughout the entire album. When the buzzsaw sander guitar of opener "Rules and Games" boot themselves into the mix it's difficult not to emit a small smile at the return of an old friend (and hopefully not a dead one, we broke all of our CDs last time one of them came back from the grave all zombified. Luckily it was the spinning velocity of Bear vs. Shark which finally managed to decapitate the egit. We awarded 'Terrorhawk' the purple heart as it sadly perished in the altercation).

"To Die Like Mouchette" and "Someday the Fire..." are the two tracks which will hopefully form a blueprint for the band's future. A blueprint which spells out how the band can place down a foundation of solid guitar riffs, fast paced song-structure and vocals as memorable as those from times gone by. It should be mentioned that gang vocals work very well for the band, even if they do have to borrow members of Lostprophets to pull them off. "To Die Like Mouchette" also features what could be described as the band's first guitar solo, (albeit a basic one) while we are usually the first people to start throwing chairs and Curly-Wurlys as band's launch into their self-aggrandising showmanship, this time it's tastefully done and lends a brief, but unique edge to the album.

Equally forward-thinking is album closer "Constant Resurrections". Bringing effects and electronic elements into a song it does everything a finale should do. Cap off the album with a look towards a brave new world of possibility for next time they return. There may be too many moments of blandness on album number four to signal a full-scale return to form, but "Memory and Humanity" shows that the band are acutely aware of where they are and where they want to be, and we'd quite like to be there with them.

Now we'll wreck a perfectly good closing paragraph by carrying on talking. But we'd be remiss if we didn't praise the mellow efforts which are provided through "Building" and "Charlie Don't Surf". While not quite up there with "History" or "Your Revolution is a Joke" they do show that a slow song does not necessarily entail breaking out the acoustic guitar and sending the rest of the band back to their dressing room. We defy you to feel a bit of appreciation as 'but he never comes around' sears over the lightly picked swelling guitar line. Now, go back and read the end of the last paragraph again because we're finishing up here and we've already used our closing statement.