southern records

Funeral For a Friend, are a Welsh post-hardcore band comprised of Kris Coombs Roberts, Gareth Davies, Ryan Richards, Darran Smith and Matt Davies, they formed in 2001 - naming themselves after a Planes Mistaken For Stars/Elton John song title.

They released two EP's in the following years, Between Order and Model and 2003's hugely influential Four Ways To Scream Your Name. Shortly after they received a Kerrang! award for best UK newcomer and in October of the same year the debut full length album Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation was released to critical acclaim.

Since then the band have released two more studio albums (Hours, Tales Don't Tell Themselves) and toured relentlessly, appearing on major festival bills such as Download and Carling Reading/Leeds Festival

This year will see the band put out their fourth studio album Memory And Humanity on their own label Join Us Records.

Matt was kind enough to take the time out to talk to us about some of his favourite Southern bands.

The Obsessed

About seven years ago, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go check out a band called Spirit Caravan. They were playing at TJ's in Newport and apparently had huge riffs and channelled the spirit of early Black Sabbath, which I thought to myself, was no bad thing. I went along and was blown away by the presence of Scott 'Wino' Weinrich and came away from the gig wanting to hear more of his music. Over the years he's been a part of many bands but none that have affected me as much as The Obsessed. Coming from Washington D.C. gave them an edge that pulled across the influences of doom metal and punk rock. It's kind of hard to believe but being into hardcore at the time, when I first heard The Obsessed, didn't matter. To me these guys just blew me away riff after riff after riff and are still on rotation on my ipod every day. Wino is a legend and you should check out his other bands, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan and The Hidden Hand.

Goatsnake

Monolithic is one word I can use to describe Goatsnake, and bluesy... A blues Monolith if you will. I got addicted to Goatsnake mainly because of Pete Stahl who used to sing for D.C. legends Scream and then Wool. We had just done a tour of the states with From Autumn To Ashes and Cave In (who Pete was tour managing at the time) I felt kind of like a kid seeing one of my favourite singers every day. One of the Cave In guys asked if I'd heard the band Goatsnake, I hadn't at the time and went out and got the record. I was blown away, the groove and heaviness it's like listening to a seriously loud and over distorted modern day Sabbath with Pete Stahl singing. It's a glorious union and a brilliant record with wicked art. I wore my Goatsnake t-shirt with pride when Funeral played Download two years ago!

Dag Nasty

What can I say about Dag Nasty (spot the pun?! haha)? They are one of the bands that really transformed the way I looked at hardcore music. They are energetic and unashamedly melodic, which is what I love about them. At the time I was 18, I first heard Can I Say and it's one of my top three hardcore albums of all time right up there with Start Today and Jersey's Best Dancers. To me hardcore isn't about brute force or overly aggressive beat downs. Hardcore was the idea of passion and not being afraid to stand up for individuality in a world where people dressed and looked the same. Dag Nasty were passionate about singing and shouting about the things that mattered most to me as a young impressionable teenager, life, friendship and the values that you live your life by. I still get the same message from them every time I play them and I even got to thank Brian Baker for it.

Tomahawk

Loads of people loved Faith No More, I for one used to play Angel Dust so loud from my car when driving around my small valley town during the summertime with my mates when we were teenagers. I never got Fantomas, I tried but it did nothing for me which was disappointing as I love the sound of Mr. Patton's voice when he gets down to the crooning. Tomahawk was the closest Mike came to reaching the same heights as FNM and it's wicked and perverse sounding... it just makes you feel a little dirtier than you did before you listened. I don't know if it's because of the vocal delivery or Duane Denisons guitar, hell it could even be both but Tomahawk (especially Mit Gas) is an exercise in the dark and dirty side of human behaviour and is delicious.

Neurosis

Last choice and I couldn't end without a mention of one my favourite noise, doom, sludge, progressive metal bands could I? It might seem like an odd choice for me but I picked up Through Silver In Blood from a small Indie store in Swansea for a mere five pounds when I was sixteen. I had read a lot about the band in various magazines etc and was so impressed by the descriptions and by the visuals that I took a risk and bought a record. I took it home and turned the lights out in my bedroom and turned the volume right up as the title track came pummelling out of the speakers. It was like a soundtrack to a nightmare, it was the most extreme music I had heard at that time of my life. My parents hated it, I loved it.

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