Further Seems Forever/Recess Theory

Item: From the 27th State
Rating: 7
Author: Scott Heisel

From the 27th State (1999)

Scott Heisel

Well, it seems that split CDs are all the rage these days, so 2 emo bands from the Sunshine State jumped on the bandwagon, too. As is the case with most split CDs/10"s/7"s/etc., one band almost always comes out on top of the other and shines. In this case, it would be Further Seems Forever.

FSF hail from Florida (duh), and has ex-members of Shai Hulud (I think) and some other emo band (I think too; I lost the promo sheet for it, so it could be the other band). And boy, did they rock my ass. Imagine Cursive or Quicksand, with a little more structure, with vocals sounding a bit like a cross between the guy from Quicksand and the guy from Saves The Day (meaning, sort of high pitched, but not too whiny) . Their three songs will stick in your head for a long time, and will have you waiting with baited breath (mine is already baited) for their full-length (which they are hopefully recording soon).

Conversely, we have Recess Theory, also from Florida. They sure do a good job of killing the atmosphere on this CD. They have that Six Going On Seven feel: they are able to do the task at hand well, but each song is just missing that right amount of umph, whether it is the climax of stomping on the distortion pedal and letting the song open up, or throwing in a weird time change to keep the listener on his feet. I'm not saying that Recess Theory is bad, though. On the contrary, they remind me a lot of Mineral (partly because they sing about god a little bit). They're good at doing their own thing, but they just seem out of place following Further Seems Forever.

I did find, though, that the CD is great for different moods. If you're in that "rage" mood, and you want someone to do the screaming for you, listen to FSF. If you just feel like mellowing out after work, skip to track 4 and let Recess Theory soothe you. Either way, I'll bet my bottom dollar that one, if not both of these bands will be big someday.

[taken from A different kind of greatness webzine]