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Of Fate And Chance is a name that precisely symbolizes
what it is like being in a rock band where members are totally
dependent on destiny and luck for their music to catch on with
the masses. The four members of Tewksbury Township, New Jersey's
Of Fate And Chance are still attending college while having self-released
their debut EP A Liar's Monologue, produced by the band,
Ryan Selick, and Scarz. The music has the dark seething
registers of Hawthorne Heights, the hardcore/progressive
rock brawn of Coheed & Cambria and The Receiving
End Of Sirens, the emo-rock arches of This Day And Age
and Ellison, and softcore punk texturing correlating to
The Starting Line and Moneen.
Lead vocalist/guitarist Sean Massaro, bassist/backup vocalist
Ryan Bergamotto, drummer Jon Fleck, and newest member
guitarist/backup vocalist Micah Payne create very well
crafted songs that are melodically barreled, sonically intriguing,
tonally exciting, and sophistically framed. The album commences
with a dreamy electronica arrangement entitled "Thulcandra's
Illness: Silence" which radiates fantasy-oriented soundscapes
in a cinematic panoply. Bergamotto explains on the band's website
that the title of the track is a metaphor for planet Earth where
people lack the guidance to know right from wrong. He says, "We
all go around fighting each other and killing each other because
we don't have guidance. Hence, we are silenced from guidance and
so silence is Earth's illness." This observation says a great
deal about the people who are placed in positions meant to guide
others - they've apparently failed.
Many of the band's song titles and lyrics are metaphors and symbols
for their emotions and thought-provoking philosophies about life,
like the selection "Photo-Not-Graphing Emotions" which
represents that someone's photograph does not necessarily tell
what that person is feeling. Bergamotto also reveals that the
song "Artwork Dancing" depicts his affection for his
girlfriend whom he translates as a vision of art.
The songs have a depth of emotion with bulging guitar licks and
thriving rhythms reminiscent of Breaking Benjamin. The
cylindrical bucking of the guitar chords function in harmony with
the hearty bass pumps and snugly nestled drum kicks. The transitions
are keenly tailored and the melodic folds stock complex piping.
Magnetically charged movements and impassioned vocals surface
on tracks like "The Hollywood Charity" and "Coordinates."
Tangents of softcore punk vaunts are packed through the rhythmic
motions of the title track and "Moonstring Intoxication,"
and prog rock/emo voicings kerosene "Welcome To Unconsciousness."
Of Fate And Chance's EP A Liar's Monologue is a rock oriented
collection where the movements and transitions cord a hard rock
delivery while every track tells an individual story. The songs
weld mid-tempo ranges and quantum energy in the movements. The
album has an alt-nation wiring, submerging into thoughtful moods
that are melodically spruced and skillfully kindled. Whatever
the band is doing to form these songs, they are doing it right,
even in a world that is deficient of the guidance to know right
from wrong.
-Susan Frances
Track listing:
1. Thulcandra's Illness: Silence
2. Artwork Dancing
3. A Liar's Monologue
4. Moonstring Intoxication
5. Photo-Not-Graphing Emotions
6. Welcome To Unconscious
7. The Hollywood Charity
8. Coordinates
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