Fews - Means (2016)

Not that they're strictly new all things told. Singer and guitarist Frederick Rundqvist met fellow guitarist 'Swedish David' Alexander through a mutual love of the same bands via MySpace when said medium was still a thing. Recruiting drummer Rasmus Andersson soon after along with a succession of bass players, the embryonic Fews' first recordings date back to around 2013. Some of those compositions have survived, albeit re-recorded and enhanced somewhat by a confidence enriched from playing more shows and working in the studio with experienced technical genius Dan Carey.

Indeed Carey's input cannot be understated, as he undoubtedly has to be given credit for helping bring Fews' ideas to life. Nevertheless, the songs also have to exist to a certain standard in the first place and Fews prolific nature when it comes to writing meant they had several tough decisions to make when finalising the tracklisting here. However, one can find little to argue about with the ten songs that did make the final cut.

For a band very few people outside of their homeland would have been aware of this time last year, their buzz has accelerated thanks to the band's incendiary live performances. To supplement this, a carefully planned strategy where tracks have only been made available at a steady rate when both band and label were fully satisfied with the results (new bands take note!), building the anticipation levels even further. What this makes for is a debut album containing no filler whatsoever, and a record that mirrors the ferocious intensity of those live shows to boot.