Artist: Feather Trade
Title: Dead Boy
Genre: Dark Rock / Alt Rock
Release Date: 15th October 2022
Label: Feather Trade Records
Review Flash
When you find a band speaking a musical and emotional language you understand, it’s a rare thing. Part of you wants to hide that band away, make them special only to you, treasure the find and keep their glorious secrets. The other part simply struggles to comprehend why they are not already “A Very Big Deal Indeed”. And if you’ve caught one of FEATHER TRADE’s majestic, intense live performances, you will already know that they are. Can this all be funnelled into a studio recording? Will it translate into a single format? Yes. Absolutely yes.
‘Dead Boy’ has all the angst with none of the whining, it’s gut-wrenchingly honest, raw and beautiful, framing the failings of an uncaring system by personalising it to a painful degree. And like all FEATHER TRADE songs, it’s carried by melody, wrapped in abrasiveness, and sung with total conviction. It’s Kafka, to music. There’s something of Jello Biafra and Henry Rollins in the vision, a young Bono crossed with Kurt Cobain in the vocals, and a pounding, relentlessness to the whole that shows a total understanding of song dynamics and direction.
Conclusion: ‘Dead Boy’ is not the start of the FEATHER TRADE story, but it’s a monumental statement on the journey, of simple yet sophisticated passion, cracking bones about the hopelessness of the systems we create while soaring above them by its very creation.
Rating: 9 / 10
