The band’s fifth album is an eclectic and very effective mix of genres that creates a melodic and dynamic whole
Genre can be problematic in music. An example: I told my older brother that my son wanted the new album Inferno by the Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada for his birthday. He went into Manchester to buy a copy, but couldn’t find it anywhere. He said he thought it was heavy metal and had only looked in that section in the record shops. He was suitably embarrassed, but it illustrates the point.
So what genre are the Fierce & the Dead? Their name might suggest heavy metal, or a sub-genre such as thrash metal or death metal. Their new album, Regional Theatre, includes several heavy metal tropes, including the Devil’s Favourite Interval, the tritone or augmented fourth, which appears in the tracks The 1234 and Dream Sequence, among others. Hey Nightmare opens with a riff that would make Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi proud. But there’s more to the band than that.
The Fierce & the Dead formed in London 16 years ago as an instrumental group, but now feature lead vocals from bassist and producer Kevin Feazey. They describe the new album as ‘pushing further into alternative and noise rock, while retaining [their] experimental spirit.’ They list an astonishing number and variety of bands and influences that feed into their writing. The album’s concept is the problems that we can sometimes have communicating with each other despite the ease with which we can communicate in the modern world.
A good entry point is the opening track, Loungeside, which sums up the band’s eclectic, effective style. It begins with a fierce metal riff built on a simple octave interval with a twist, reminiscent of the riff on Porcupine Tree’s Blackest Eyes, the opening track on In Absentia (2002). And the Porcupine Tree link continues with keyboard soundscapes in the style of Porcupine Tree’s Richard Barbieri. The track uses the quiet/loud style made popular by Nirvana, and there’s a touch of Nine Inch Nails too. The chorus is quiet, atmospheric and dream-like, with haunting backing vocals. The track ends with an anthemic version of the chorus, with an epic key change and a final melodic hook. All this in a track which is only four minutes long.
Other songs feature a similar variety of sounds, and an imaginative approach to musical styles: Shake Hands and Exit begins with a monstrous metal riff, then there’s a Nine Inch Nails-style quiet section, an earworm of a chorus, and a lovely, spacey breakdown section with a cinematic, orchestral sound that leads to a James Bond-like spread chord; Superbia starts with vocals that sound like Ian Brown of The Stone Roses, then goes into a delightful section where the vocals sound slightly manic, in the style of James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, finally a gorgeous and unexpected break-down section leads to an anthemic section at the end.
But Regional Theatre is far more than a collection of influences. It’s superbly played, sung and produced. What unites the album is a pioneering spirit and driving commitment, that bring energy and dynamism to every song. The imaginative blending of influences creates something entirely new. The band are touring in October and November, and it will be fascinating to see if they can bring the same dynamism to their live shows.
Regional Theatre is out now on Bandcamp
The Fierce & The Dead tour England in October and November 2026 – dates here