Shook Ones – Facetious Folly Feat

To say I know a lot about Hardcore would be a complete and utter lie. Still, I know what I like and throughout the past week the CD that I’ve been enjoying the most is the sophomore album from Seattle’sShook Ones. Their brand of melodic hardcore layered throughout Facetious Folly Feat proves that they are a band to be reckoned with and shows that the album is ready for the hardcore purists along with the people like me, who don’t know a lot about hardcore.

The album, clocking in at just over twenty minutes, rips through eleven tracks in no time. Insanely fast drumming, phenomenal breakdowns, mid-tempo riffs, and just the right amount of “woahs” in the background make the songs seem incredibly aggressive and melodic at the same time. It all molds together perfectly; o ne listen to Grown Up and you can see the band crossing the boundaries of speed, bridging slower breakdowns to jump back into breakneck speed that the songs are founded on.

Of course, the highlight of the album, and the singular part that truly attracted me to Facetious Folly Feat is the first place is Scott Freeman’s remarkable vocal delivery. Easily comparable to some of hardcore’s greats like Jason Shevchuk of None More Black and Kid Dynamite fame, Freeman’s vocals are rough, harsh and spat out at a lightning fast speed making them nearly indecipherable without the help of the lyrics booklet. His harsh yelps are what really propels the songs forward, of course the carefully placed woahs (as mentioned before) and shout-along back-ups do a little to help too.

The biggest surprise comes in the form of the simplistic Ebb and Flow. Accompanied solely by a singular electric guitar, Freeman’s vocals are the driving point of the song. And while it is a softer track than the rest of the album it successfully bridges the gap between the first and second halves of the album; making the structure of the album feel like the structure of each individual song.

Facetious Folly Feat is a solid output, it’s not ultra inventive, but it works. You can replay it numerous times without getting bored. Even though it may not stack up against some other releases this year, it is a good album in it’s own right and an album you’ll have to problem playing over and over again.