Farewell My Enemy

EVER WE FALL
FAREWELL MY ENEMY
SMALL TOWNS BURN A LITTLE SLOWER
Westchester Park Recreation Center
July 1, 2004
Los Angeles California

The Rise Records Summer Tour made its way into the Los Angeles area, and those who passed on the event missed out on a good time. Competing with the Warped Tour that was also in town on the same day, the three bands performing made the best of it and rocked out at the Westchester Park Recreation Center.

The next band, Farewell My Enemy (from Salt Lake City), features Chris Envy on lead vocals. Envy use to be in Showoff, who released an album on Maverick Records before disbanding. I’m not sure what Showoff was like, but Farewell My Enemy nearly blew the top off the venue. Their latest Rise Records CD is entitled Casting For Funerals, and songs such as Choke and You’re Dead To Me came off fantastic in a live setting. The band Envy has assembled is right on the mark, from the searing guitar work to the super tight rhythm section. Even with the sparse attendance, Farewell My Enemy performed like they were headlining at The Forum. A thrilling set from a band that you’ll be hearing a lot more from in the future! - Highwire Daze Magazine

So I arrived early for this show under the premise that, yes, I'll be reviewing it for punknews.org, and people hate it when you say, "Well, I got there a bit late and missed the opening band." The only problem is: I got there way too early. In fact, I got to the Triple Rock before the doors even opened, which means only one thing: boring waiting time before the show starts without any friends around since none of them come for the opening acts. Luckily, I knew a few people there, and they played Wu-Tang's "36 Chambers" as the opening music, so the hour of waiting went quickly.

The first band up was Farewell My Enemy. They play music that could generally be classified as "screamo," which, if you know me, made me pre-disposed to being critical of them. In my opinion, the style is too overplayed these days, and I tend to get bored with it easily. Farewell My Enemy impressed me though. They held a certain level of professionalism and musicianship that was extremely respectable. The songs were well written, and everything sounded great. In fact, they probably had the best sound quality out of any of the bands that played, and I felt really bad that they had to open the show. Definitely worth seeing live. Their stage presence was fine tuned and intense. - Punknews.org

Farewell My Enemy
Casting for Funerals
Rating: 4.3 out of 5

REVIEW:
Consisting of Chris (vocals) and Nate Envy (guitar) of Showoff, Josh Tindell (guitar), John Finnegan (bass), and Jon Schafer (drums), Farewell My Enemy plays emo rock with that punk/hard rock edge. Having played only a little under a year together, FME formed in Salt Lake City in the summer of 2003. Sounding little like Showoff, Farewell My Enemy take more of a straight ahead rock approach. I would equate most of the music to that of Thrice without the double-bass drum (mostly). It’s also kind of hard not to notice that Chris sound very similar to Billie Joe from Greed Day. The acoustic number “Monday Morning” illustrates this perfectly, as it sounds like a third rate hack of “Good Riddance”. Minus a little acoustic scare that opens “Longer to Wake”, the rest of the album thankfully sticks to the melodic rock that is introduced to us in the first half of the album.

The recording quality sounds like most of the records put out on Rise recently. The guitars feel like they’re a little too far a way, and little too distorted and compressed. Everything else sounds mixed well, and with the absence of any auxiliary percussion or other musical instruments, the job was made a little easier.

Fans of Showoff will probably like album, as some pop-punk influences are clearly heard on this prominently rock record. But this record is primarily for the fans of melodic rock, and any fan of melodic rock will definitely want to hear this.

4.3/5

-Seth

RIYL:
Thrice
Trapt
New Found Glory
- Decoy Music

Farewell My Enemy//Casting For Funerals

Farewell My Enemy is a Salt Lake City, via Chicago, bitter punk/indie rock quartet with ex-Showoff singer/songwriter Chris Envy. Combining plenty of genres with bitter hooks and standout vocals, Farewell My Enemy put together 11 diverse tracks for their Rise debut ‘Casting For Funerals.’ Although all the tracks have the same basic feel, the layers of sound in each and every track produce and album that doesn’t get old.

Starting out with a bitter themed ‘Choke,’ the vocals all of a sudden take you to this new dimension and the instrumentals capture you leading you into the intoxicating ‘The Only Reason.’ The rhythm repeats underlying some awesome guitar melodies and genius lyrics, “Bring gasoline, to burn his flesh off.” Everything just strikes you with an awesome sensation. The album has some great twists, from the wicked percussion of ‘You’re Dead To Me’ to the dark yet enlightening guitars of ‘The Crash.’ Intertwined between electrical forces of music are a few acoustic tracks such as the sweet and sincere ‘Monday Morning’ and the hybrid electric/acoustic ‘Longer To Wake,’ whose melodies are more powerful and emotional than ever.

‘G vs G’ falls on the homestretch of the album. It’s melodic yet heavy vocals sit nicely on top of some complex guitar rhythms, which stand as refreshing. Its lyrics are interesting, are they meant to be something thought out of boredom or a struggle or real proportions? One thing is evident; they are funny to listen to, a fight between the famous McDonalds’ character Grimmace and his apparent asian enemy Godzilla. ‘He defeats him with his heat seeking french fries,’ it’s funny and yet it reminds me of things I think up in my boredom, especially during class, but the last repeated line ‘Get out of my head’ may represent a type of struggle between sanity and the insane thoughts this song brings about. The album closer, ‘Forget,’ is a powerful track complete with emotional lyrics, simple guitar riffs, basic underlying rhythms, and an orchestral sound for extra tear jerking. With the sound of rock and the heart of emo, the track brings a lot of meaning and life to an overwhelming album, and provides a great closing sound. Of course you can’t forget the bonus track, after a half-hour of silence, the band provides a 6-second hardcore ending to their masterpiece, great sense of humor guys.

- Disfiguredid.com