The last album that the wondrous death metal band of Feared put out, “Synder”, was f**king phenomenal and just about everyone who I know that heard it undeniably agreed with me that it was one of the best records of 2015 that barely got any real attention, which is a damn shame. Many of us wondered where these guys would go next after putting out five tremendous albums within four years and with each album more excellent than the last. Well, as it happens Feared have not decided to go forward, not completely anyway, but instead going back a little bit to celebrate Feared’s tenth anniversary as a band putting out pure magnificence. For their upcoming album “Reborn”, Feared have decided to go back and re-record select songs from their first two releases, “Rejects” and “Refeared”, because they always felt those records “weren’t up to par” with later releases. So they decided to do a full overhaul of what they thought were the best tracks and redo them top to bottom with new mixing, mastering, production; the whole nine yards and everything else imaginable. And as someone who genuinely loves some of the tracks they redid, I was secretly afraid that they’d ruin the tracks that I love by going to far with the revamped versions, but Feared prove that they are too good for me as they did not disappoint in any way with the overhauled tracks. There’s a new element of heaviness and brutality in the songs that I previously didn’t enjoy very much that breathe so much more life into them to make them exponentially more enjoyable than their initial versions. And it’s cool to see new versions of s**t that I’ve gotten plenty used to as I listen to them many, many times in one day alone, but they do not lose a single iota of their glorious luster with “Reborn” as it does nothing but justice for the tracks that I’ve come to know and love, and only improve upon everything for tracks that beforehand I was all “ehhhhhh” about. Somehow, Feared manage to improve upon the old by 3000% with “Reborn” as every single song whether I liked it before or not is made to be ridiculously heavier, a sound that is significantly more crisp, and a great feel that I have only been able to find with Feared of all the bands I listen to. If you aren’t sure where to start with Feared and have been meaning to, which let’s be honest anywhere is a good start, then “Reborn” is a great place to start if you want to catch the best of the old (five years isn’t old, is it?) with the new sound that Feared have made an absolute killing off of as the legends they are.
“Reborn” releases on June 3rd. You can pre-order the album via iTunes here.
