Fight the Fight are still in the earliest stages of defining their own sound, despite many years of playing together under another moniker, but they’ve certainly nailed something here

8 years ago

Fight the Fight are still in the earliest stages of defining their own sound, despite many years of playing together under another moniker, but they’ve certainly nailed something here that is a combination of metal and emocore style punk (think At the Gates meets A Day to Remember). There are some really sweet melodic hooks in the choruses especially in the lead track.

One of the things I found most interesting in listening to this short album (8 tracks blaze by in 29 minutes) are the myriad elements they combine throughout. Spotify insists they share similarities with Kvelertak and I’m inclined to agree at least where it comes to the second track here, “The Edge” though they set themselves apart enough with slightly cleaner vocals.

There’s a little Taking Back Sunday influence on third track “The Other Side”. A clean guitar part, some shouted chorus lines, and mostly clean vocals throughout showcase another gear for the band. If anything, this helps cement the idea that this band already lives in the same kind of territory in Europe that ADTR does here in the States and that’s not a bad place at all when it comes to memorable hooks and chunky riffs.

“Perfect Combination”, of all of the tracks here, is nearly exactly what it says on the tin if you want to hear what could be called the “FtF sound”. There’s a little bit of everything they do and they do it well.

Album closer “My Emperor” is a ferocious stomper of a tune that takes all of the heavy bands I’d bet these guys love and throws them in a blender. It’s more vengeful attack is a nice pick-me-up after what feels like a love note to late In Flames on “This is War”.

At the end of the day, the best thing the band has going for it is a certain fluidity in switching gears between these influences and styles. If you like your punk heavily influenced by the more melodic elements of the metal scene then this is your kind of band. A very fine debut effort from this band finds them coming ever closer to fully fleshing out their sound. Once they firmly find their niche they will be contenders for higher billings on the European summer festival circuit.

Fight the Fight is out now via Indie Recordings.

Bill Fetty

Published 8 years ago