Francesco Fonte Band - 'Eight' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Necropolis Eye

2. Sun

3. Universe Garden

4. Bloody Dream

5. Dancer Of Love

6. Never Ending

7. Burn

8. The Dark Heath (Live)

This is an intensely interesting album, the band's sound is blended from a broad palette, occasionally quirky and often intense crunching rhythms, a vocalist sounding at times like Nick Cave, but whose range frankly startled me when he hit the first high note, at the top end of his range he reminded me a great deal of the late great Chris Cornell (very high praise indeed coming from me).

This band has a huge sonic footprint, I was very surprised they were a trio. 'Eight' is not the band's first release (in fact that came out in 2011), so the guys know what they're doing, that's one of the things that make this a great listen, there's a confidence the band have which means they can easily afford to be somewhat musically playful, a quality that gives this disc a replay value above and beyond the interesting vocal gymnastics (which would keep me coming back anyway for that Cornellesque vibe).

There's no shortage of talent on show on this album, some interesting influences could be speculated here too, there's the obvious connection I made already with Soundgarden (surely the proggiest of grunge bands!?), but the sonic textures created by the band also suggest Nine Inch Nails, maybe even some Tool. There's something akin to but not quite a stoner vibe at times here too.

So, a band who have defied description throughout my time listening to them, fantastic, just what I want to hear, what I want to hear more of if I'm entirely honest, this is definitely an album to check out.