Band: FORSTELLA FORD
Genres: Punk / Rock / Metallic Hardcore / Emo / Screamo / Alternative / HardcoreRelated artists: Tornavalanche, Red Knife Lottery, Cut Teeth, Gifted Children and The Television Personalities.
Country: Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA
Years Active: 1996-2003, 2004-2005
Song: "Asterix Legionaires"
Album: "Insincerity Down to an Artform"
Year: 1999
Label(s): Level Plane Records / The Mountain Collective For Independent Artists, Ltd. / Init Records / First Time Records / Boxcar Records / 404 Records / Scene Police / One Day Savior Recordings /
This post's artist is from the April 2015 Mix. This is track #5.
You can download: the April Mix#4 right here or get the new May 2015 Mix#5 here.
For fans of: Kill Sadie, Alexisonfire, Kidcrash, Carrion Spring, Leer, Off Minor, You And I, The Assistant, Circle Takes The Square, Honeywell, Capacities, Saetia and Transistor Transistor aka PROPER SCREAMO.
FORSTELLA FORD were an interesting group. Others seem to love the band more than me, most notably because I'm not a fan of the singing. The screaming, especially when coming from two members, is amazing and fits the music so much better in my opinion. In the end the band comes off (to me) as Consumed playing technical/metallic screamo.
I should start with the good stuff, because it's not just good, it's killer. "Asterix Legionaires" is the best song the band ever recorded. Holyyyyyyy fuck. The stop-start and downright cathartic nature of the song brings a full on forest fire freak out to mind...errrrr, at least to mine. The screaming is really high pitched, there's a kickass Off Minor-esque instrumental jazzy jam at 0:58 which eventually leaps to a beautiful fate around 1:24 as the mathy and metallic stranglehold first strikes. Uncommon Ground" is pretty much all screaming, hell yes. This is a prime example of the amazing heights the band reached sticking to their, pardon the marketing term, "competitive advantage" before deviating to more diverse and melodic vocals. The entire song is fantastic with my favourite part beginning at 32 seconds with the really cool ambulance siren sound and aluminum string-click thing that is catchy as fuck. I should also mention "Beauty is in the Eye of the Bestower" because it goes nuts right from the get-go and has strong ties to punk and hardcore...until 1:21 when the keys get involved and things get fucking groovy. In typical FORSTELLA FORD fashion that groove is dismantled and dynamited promptly thereafter at the 2:39-mark.
The intro (aka the first 46 seconds) is flawless in "Tell-Tale Signs and Sure Fire Ways", but like almost every song from 'Quietus' onward, the vocals took a primarily melodic approach which always rubbed me the wrong way. I just don't like his singing voice. But the screams, oh man. And the backup screamer as well. For a tasty morsel be sure to jam as the sweet guitar interplay after 3:30 that is quite reminiscent of Saetia and Caught In The Fall with numerous screamers taking shots at belting out the outro. "Dying on Our Own Terms" showed up on more than one album and has a fair amount of Kill Sadie interplay following the pre-At The Drive In intro. This song has a million parts, many of which were partially recycled (in style) by Alexisonfire on their first album. It's that guitar synchronization with an awkward/jagged solo mixed with palm muted chug riffs. This song in particular has a lot of noise/ambient/drone sections dispersed throughout. It's also pretty long, clocking in at 6:57 (or 6:46 for the demo/original). I swear to fucking god (aka science) that I hear Kyuss in the beginning of "Dashing Hopes" and, finally, at 1:15 the song really gets going and shows signs of brilliance at 1:38 with some unreal screaming The Assistant-style followed by a Circle Takes The Square sounding outro that peaks from 1:58 to the ridiculous, climatic ending.
I'm quite certain that FORSTELLA FORD's final foray in 2003 'Well Versed in Deception' was not a stab at semi-mainstream, but goddamn it just comes across as trying to bridge some kind of fan/genre gap. Perhaps I'm being too hard on the album, but in the end it truly doesn't do anything for me. There's a lot of cleaner singing and I'm not a fan of it, and the production seems a little too clean for my liking. There are some great moments on this record, such as the amazing screamy parts in "I Can Get Away With Anything" (eg. 0:30) and really cool jazzy, instrumental noodling (eg. 1:00). "Indication by Demonstration" is a decent and primarily instrumental jam and the very technical end of "Impulse" show glimmers of hope, but the album is bogged down by a lack of power and emotion. Wait, it's mainly the vocals. Goddammit it.
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1997 - Forstella Ford 7"EP
1998 - Relics of an Unseen Life cdLP
1999 - Insincerity Down to an Artform cd/12"LP
1999 - Arcebus Vs. Archer 7"EP
2000 - The Assistant split 7"
2001 - Quietus cd/12"LP (stream/donate/buy/download here)
2001 - Life Detecting Coffins split 12"LP (stream/donate/buy/download here)
2003 - Well Versed in Deception cd/12"LP (stream/donate/buy/download here)
2003 - Retrospective: 1997-2000 compilation cdLP (contains everything except Relics, Quietus and Well Versed)
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(1999) FORSTELLA FORD - "Asterix Legionaires" (from 'Insincerity Down to an Artform')
(1999) FORSTELLA FORD - "Uncommon Ground" (from 'Life Detecting Coffins' split)
(2000) FORSTELLA FORD - "Beauty is in the Eye of the Bestower" (from 'The Assistant' split)
(2001) FORSTELLA FORD - "Tell-Tale Signs and Sure-Fire Ways" (from 'Quietus')
(2001) FORSTELLA FORD - "Dashing Hopes" (from 'Quietus')
(2003) FORSTELLA FORD - "I Can Get Away With Anything" (from 'Well Versed in Deception')
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FORSTELLA FORD out of print mp3 discography download / additional links
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