Bands You Ought To Know : Fail Emotions

We all have that one band that makes awesome music, and we often wish about how they deserve to be bigger and more popular, don’t we? In todays day and age, when there are subgenres popping up nearly every year, some have managed to survive while some just withered away and disappeared as quickly as they came into the limelight. Hardcore is a genre with many (too many imo) subgenres ,the most popular being metal core and post hardcore. Often cited as being “generic” and “uninspiring” , hardcore bands, nonetheless, have had quite an impact on the music scene in the west and is picking up its pace in the east too. Anyway, coming back to the point, once in a blue moon we come across a band that is soo good it makes you shit your pants. BUT , you also find out that “x” band is not very popular as of yet and you wonder why. There could be a multitude of reasons that includes bad PR etc, but that is a whole different topic altogether, and we are not here for that now, are we? This new column exists so that I can tell you about bands you ought to know about (if you still have not i.e) and today we are going to talk about Fail Emotions.

Hailing all the way from mother Russia, Fail Emotions is a trance core band and a very good one at that. The first time I heard this band, it literally blew my socks off (like srs).  I’m a fan of electronic hardcore music, and this is one of the best bands in the genre imo, trust me. Djenty riffs, beefy synths/samples and slightly autotuned vocals with heavy breakdowns, what more could you ask for? 

Fail Emotions came into inception in 2008. Their music was quite different back then,and only in 2009 did they incorporate the “trance core” sound in their music. The band heavily uses HQ samples and mixes it with live instruments. They released  a demo in 2009 titled “SIDE A” with (now) popular songs like “Crying After Dreaming” and “Eternity”. In 2010 the band released a EP titled “Makes Bad” and a few changes to the line-up were also made. Again in 2010, another EP titled “Dance Macabre” was released that included a new song and two old but remastered tracks. Finally, in late 2010 (again) they released a full length titled “Transformation” that included songs like “Satellite” and “Suit & Tie”. After  a long gap (of nearly two years) on the 26th of April 2012 the band finally released an EP titled “Speed Of Light”. Their most recent release is titled “Gravity” that came out on the 1st of September 2013.

There are countless bands out there that call/label themselves “trance core” but what most of them do is paste some sh*tty synth over generic hardcore riffs and breakdowns (it actually makes me mad). These so called “trance core” bands use synth to cover up for their lack in creativity and to add a little diversity without which they would probably sound like a painfully generic metal core band. It could also be said that Fail Emotions is probably the first and the only band that has been successfully able to fuse actual trance music with hardcore, which makes them the first tr00 trancecore band (and im not even kidding).

Having a Dj in your band must be a huge plus point because the Dj in Fail Emotions (Dj Fatal) contributes soo much to the overall feel and ambience that I wonder how FE would sound without him. Ofcourse, im not implying that the rest of the band is shite, because FE would just not sound the same if there was a major lineup change and the only person who remained would be the Dj. The electronic elements seamlessly fuse in with the rest of the music and the results are staggeringly beautiful. The vocals may sound a bit too “processed” and may take more than a single listen to get accustomed to, but it compliments heavily to the “trance-y” sound the band is trying to achieve. The cleans are a bit monotonous and then there are the generic growls and fry screams thrown in for good measure, but considering the overall sound, “tis but a scratch”. 

Album art for their latest release titled "Gravity"

If this is your kind of music, and if you’re familiar with other trance core/electronic core bands, you will also start to wonder why this band is less known compared to other bands of the same genre like Enter Shikari, I See Stars and the likes even though when they been around for a while, and well, all I have are theories to offer instead of a concrete answer. It could be because of the location, or because of the lack of promotion or some other reason like that. It could also be that the band chose to remain “underground” themselves for reasons unknown but whatever the cause, this band deserves more fans (imo). Fail Emotions have been growing musically with each album and their sound is maturing aswell. If one compares the sound from their first EP to any single from their latest LP “Gravity” , one can notice that the band has taken a giant leap forward musically. All in all, Fail Emotions is a band to be reckoned with and they also deserve a bigger fan base. Spearheading the “tr00-trancecore” movement this band has huge potential, and if you still have not checked this band out, you probably should!