Fading Signal is one of my favorite hardcore bands to come out of the North Carolina region in recent years. Melodic and moshy, the group has released two EPs, and a split with Florida band Miracle just last year. But after some behind-the-scenes work, things will truly be getting busy in Fading Signal in the coming months.
"Since our last release we have more or less laid low, locking in these songs, recording the LP, and playing a few local shows including Overcome Fest along with E.Town Concrete, Invoke, Eyez Wide Shut, Shogun, and more," vocalist Jordan Holland wrote me earlier this week.
The LP he's referring to is Only An Echo, Fading Signal's forthcoming debut album, and their first release for Indecision Records. Recorded and engineered by Garrett Barefoot, with mixing and mastering handled by Jon Berrier, the significance of the project was not lost on Jordan. "This is our first LP and therefore our biggest collection of songs yet.
"We put a lot of focus into making this album flow like an album as opposed to just being a bunch of songs put together, both musically and lyrically. In my opinion, this album is the perfect culmination of the band to this point."
To celebrate the pre-order announcement of the album, Fading Signal dropped a single from it called "Misery Lane" today:
"Misery Lane" is the culmination of all of our music to this point in my opinion," Jordan said. "It was written pretty much entirely musically by our guitarist David and the rest of us added little tweaks here and there. Musically, I couldn't be more proud of it. We've never really written a song that sounds like this before and I think that it's a perfect evolution of our sound.
"Lyrically, the song is reflecting back on our first couple of EPs, which were mostly about a relationship I was in some years back that ended abruptly. I realized that singing those songs constantly brought me back to the mental state I was in when I wrote them and that it wasn't something I wanted to feel in that way anymore. I love those songs and I'm proud of them and we will always continue to play them, so this song is kind of a palete cleanser for me lyrically."
I asked Jordan for some more insight on the rest of the material on Only An Echo. "Everyone who has heard the record has agreed that it's the most fully realized version of our sound yet. More varied song structures, stronger melodies, harder mosh parts, and more varied lyrics. Lyrically, on this record I've tried to expand out more than I have in the past.
"A lot of it is still personal, but reflects growth and change. Topics covered include losing family members, changing relationships with lifelong friends, celebrity/idol worship, manosphere 'grindset' culture, and of course hardcore itself (both in terms of the band and the larger picture of hardcore in general)."
Count me in.
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Only An Echo will be out soon via Indecision Records (pre-order).
Fading Signal on social media: Instagram
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