Fayne - The Queen Of Kings EP

It feels like a metalcore night tonight. It's cold here, not excessively cold like the US East-Coast, but cold enough to generate some snow and side-falling rain! Tonight's metalcore exponents are Fayne, from Montreal. The city that gave birth to A Perfect Murder, as well as the mighty Cryptopsy, tech-death band Neuraxis and Kataklysm no less! Okay, so we know it's got a bit of a pedigree when it comes to heavy bands.

The Queen Of Kings EP is the third EP to come from Fayne since their inception over ten years ago. After releasing two EP's, they took a break in 2008 before reforming five-years later. This EP was released later that year, physically via themselves and digitally via Crystal Math. The EP features guest vocals from Karl Schubach of Misery Signals too.

Tracklist:-

1. The Queen Of Kings
2. Believers
3. Isonic Flight
4. Concord
5. Nomad's Land (Featuring Karl Schubach of Misery Signals)

Fayne’s approach to metalcore is to hit full-throttle instantly with the title-track. There’s technical guitar, guttural screams and powerful percussion all in the mix. Add to that some catchy clean vox and Fayne seem to have all bases covered. They sit at the more melodic end of the spectrum, especially when compared to the bands I mentioned in my opening paragraph, but that’s fine with me because their penchant for progression gives them an edge.

They push through the gears on Believers, which initially has a faster feel to it. Taking from the death metal and hardcore that is so prominent in the Montreal scene, they up the brutality. They compliment that heaviness with another melodic chorus, that sits a bit deeper in the mix while the guitars take centre stage. I’m not taking anything away from vocalist Joseph Espinosa though, he does have a good range and a soulful singing voice, when he’s not screaming.

Believers seems to end a bit abruptly and leads straight into the interlude of Isonic Fight, with it'ss ambient guitar and subtle electronics. After that brief respite, Concord takes over with a thrashing intro. More so than before, Fayne reminds me of bands like Periphery and that ilk. It’s a comparison that some people may reach when listening to the off-kilter structure of the song. The riff that comes in at about 02:50 is brilliant though, in a simple way and their technicality shines through towards the end as does their love of groove.

Closing song Nomad’s Land is their lengthiest number and is given added heft by a performance from Karl Schubach, of Misery Signals. The punk-rhythms, breakdowns and dual-guitar harmonies are the closest hints to the metalcore influences in their sound. The song is their most assured on The Queen Of Kings and despite it’s near 7-minute length, its got more than enough bite to keep you listening. 

Though this is Fayne’s first recorded material in six-years, it shows none of the signs of a band finding their feet again. They seem to have been able to pick up from where they left off before, and in the process have written a mature and technically strong EP. Their only direction is up from here!

You can stream The Queen Of Kings and download Believers free below:-



I'm unable to find a link for Crystal Math, but you can purchase the EP both digitally and on CD from the above page.

Fayne Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/faynemusic