Feign – Manchester, England, United Kingdom
The contemporary Hardcore umbrella is one pairing diversity and rage in growing measure and that is where introducing Feign enters the fray via their contorted expression. Based in Manchester and shying away from the more expansive personnel rosters, the band cut their way into 2022 with a three-prong affront ticking more than one aggravated metric with a fluidic take on modern Hardcore.
The band’s demos from the aforementioned ’22, ‘Null’ (June) and ‘It’s A Joke’ (December), present a scathing slew of Metallic Hardcore Punk. To date, Feign has taken alternating cues from the ubiquitous presence of Thrash in the genre alongside bouts of more traditional Hardcore and other metallically-derived “groove”. However, crucially, this isn’t their be-all and end-all. With this difficult-to-miss backdrop in place, waiting in the wings, Feign have deployed both precision Post-Hardcore and its turbo-charged cousin Mathcore, set poised and purposed to wildly interject.
And that is just the nihilistic, rut-confined mania of ‘Null’. Despite demo status, the band’s first effort is intricately diverse. Rife with constant, well-executed but rough-cut tempo changes and outright stylistic shifts, ‘Null’ yields nothing but a keen acuity for craft pulling the strings behind such a 3:03.
‘A null attempt at something
Insipid cluster of nothing’
‘It’s A Joke’, in name at least, is the fervent antithesis of that very title. The band’s second track to date laces a melodious line around you, easing you into a false sense of security as you’re distracted by the impassioned exclamation of a grand, abject and unfunny joke. The line is then pulled tight, as the band’s rhythm section motions between a low, brooding wobble and a gargantuan flurry of axe-shaped fists in a Mathcore-inclined interlude that BECOMES such as the cycling leviathan of ‘It’s A Joke’ stands defiant in its entirety.
Straight to the point, ish, that was my attempt at introducing Feign. Find all you need on the three-piece below!
