Funeral For A Friend are a pretty decent band from the UK who do the whole "sing/scream" thing that everybody knows is so played out to the point now where it has been given it's own name which doesn't need to be said again. FFAF put out this small release (a collection of the songs on their first two EP's they released in the UK, minus two songs from said EP's and plus one b-side) on ferret as an introduction to the US, and while it isn't exactly the most original thing in the world, it shows some potential and it's alot better then most of the stuff that has a similar style to this (see The Used/Story Of The Year/etc.).

While these 7 songs are kind of dated and the band's new material is a big step up this isn't bad by any means, the clean vocals are on key and the chorus's are easy to get into, and the screams aren't bad either. Some things about this release confuse me though, like why they took out 2 of the songs from the originally EP's and added a b-side that is by far the worst song on the album and I now skip automatically (hell, the singer even apologizes for his "Daryl Palumbo impression" in the booklet).

Other then that, it's a solid album, pretty cheap and there are some really great songs on it. If you're into stuff like Thursday, older Glassjaw and the like you should enjoy this, hopefully their recently released full length record can be imported here soon.

Best song: Escape Artists Never Die