The Felix Culpa - Sever Your Roots

The Felix Culpa
Sever Your Roots
Self-released
A





I personally think one of the most rewarding experiences as a music lover is to go to a show and hear a band for the first time and instantly fall in love with them. Thanks to a particular someone, I got my first taste of The Felix Culpa at this year’s Bled Fest, and I haven’t really looked back. Self-releasing Sever Your Roots early this year, it would be difficult to call it the best of the year back in January, but in August it still holds just as strong as the first time I heard it four months ago. With a bombastic chemistry of post-hardcore, progressive and indie-rock, The Felix Culpa gives a refreshingly brilliant performance that might form a need you can’t fix.

Whether it is the wandering melodies bleeding through the opening of “The Constant” or the gritty pulsing of “The First One To The Scene Of The Accident Always Gets Blood On Their Hands”, Sever Your Roots has a versatility within, and outside of, the indie-rock realm. Sometimes you’ll be caught up in the suspense of huge, wonderfully written movements backed by heart-tugging lyricism (“New Home Life”), where other times a focus on groove and suspense lead to mind-perplexing passages (“What You Call Thought Control, I Call Thought Control”, “The Constant”) where you can’t help but lend a toe to tap along.

On the flipside, The Felix Culpa display and flex an experimental muscle on par with perhaps Thrice or The Dear Hunter. It might be hard to pinpoint one song where this talent is best displayed, but even a journey through the six-minute long “Our Holy Ghosts” weaves us through a plethora of melodious fretwork, intense vocals and intricate, yet not overpowering drumming. That same drumming drives the up-and-down nature of “Escape To The Mountain, Lest Thou Be Consumed”, cozying up to time signatures of 5/4 and the like. It proves the intelligent nature of the music in that it challenges you to find a way to groove in ways other than bobbing your head on two and four.

It would be a shame to overlook an album this good, whether it was self-released or not. The Felix Culpa have set the bar high, not only for themselves, but for anyone in the indie-rock or progressive music realms. Do yourself, and this band, a huge favor and pick up what is one of the year’s best releases regardless of genre.