Straight out of Thurmont, MD, Faith In Jane has been busting balls, crushing heads and taking no prisoners since 2009. The first few years of their existence the trio honed their skills until they knew some serious damage could be done with the groovy, spacey and jammed take on stoned out doom. And annihilate they do! I've been fortunate enough to have witnessed them live on several trips up to Maryland and Faith In Jane is a force to be reckoned with. Each new show brings something different and is always a natural step forward for them. How does this translate to the band's recorded efforts. Well dear waverider, read on about their brand new full-length, 'Sorcerer, Sword, Smoke' and find out.
Right out of the starting block in opener ‘Back To Earth’, messieurs Ben Mize, guitars & vocals, Brendan Winston, bass guitar and Alex Llewellyn, drums, throw a left hook, followed by a right hook and then a vicious upper cut that leaves me stumbling and gasping for air…even before ten seconds has passed! When I finally manage to gather my senses, I am lost in the wonderful world of Faith In Jane.
We all have our own individual ways of absorbing the music we listen to. And it also differs depending on what is being played. As for these gentlemen, all I recommend is to close your eyes, crank it up and just let the band take you away on a magical trip. Weaving back and forth between tempos, solos, jam sessions, you name it, it still never gets boring and that’s a great accolade. Countless bands have at countless times failed miserably trying to play above their abilities. Not these guys! Faith In Jane do whatever they want so easily and the end result is amazing. There are few, if hardly any bands nowadays, that can unleash such free flowing music, especially on a record. Just check out ‘Stormbringer’ for instance. A heavy monster from the start, but yet the band goes into different stages throughout with the flick of a switch without losing stride or momentum.
The aforementioned ‘Stormbringer’ is along with the ultra-doomy and trippy ‘Doomed Phoenix’, ‘Speaking The Wicked Tongue’, ‘Channel The Cosmic’ and ‘Infinite Love’ my absolute favourites on the album. And they really bring out what Faith In Jane are. You should of course listen to the album because it is a barnstormer, but the tracks I mentioned are all you could ask for in any band. I guess you can call Faith In Jane a free band, and what I mean by that is they do anything they want without any outside pressure. And that freedom is priceless which is so perfectly evident in ‘Sorcerer Sword Smoke’. I wish more bands has the same guts to do anything they want to, instead of thinking “will this be a hit”. If they did, the world of music would be a bottomless treasure chest. Since this most likely won’t happen, Faith In Jane are here to show the way.
Don’t miss out on this fantastic music waveriders. I implore you to also check out the band’s extensive back catalog. If I’m not mistaken they have two full-lengths, one EP and five singles out already, independently released, and can be obtained from their bandcamp page. And anyone out there running a label should pick them up because Faith In Jane has not shied away from the public eye…and unbelievably they are still unsigned.
- Swedebeast
