For The Glory "Lisbon blues"

Do the words “Instant classics” mean anything to you?

If not, do yourself a favor, get the “new” (2013) album from the Portuguese crew. It’s worth thousands explanations and examples (including mine).

“Instant”, because it’s direct. No experimentation, no post nor proto-anything. Just pure energy from the speakers to your ears, and body. First, the nodding, the shaking, the moshing, unstoppable for 26 minutes, as if you were discovering Rage Against the Machine or Terror again.

Then, while you are trying to get back your breath, the thinking: what happened?

The same as usual with For The Glory. That’s the “classical” part. Efficiency, fueled by nervous bursts of power, channeled through a well managed groove. Or the perfect balance between punk and bouncing NY style hardcore. Like thousands of other bands? Be honest, when was the last time you heard good ol’hardcore rocking this way? Knowing the recipe doesn’t make you a good cook. You need experience (and these guys have it for sure, cf the 110 song : “after a decade [they] still do it [their] way”) and to put all your heart in the process (same song: “give it all, be sincere, do it [your] own way”).

For what result?

Powerfully played and produced, the album is as heavy as the Portuguese external debt and it hits you as strong as the IMF do on public services in a “supposedly-in-crisis” country.

Those shitty metaphors were not chosen by coincidence. It’s my modest attempt to highlight one more quality (if not the main one) of this album: the way it is linked to a particular reality (in this case the European/Portuguese one).

As a globalized phenomenon, hardcore sometimes loses sight of its local reality. Bands, lyrics and sounds are often focused on emulating the American model and trends. Which is quite contradictory with the nature of hardcore in itself, as a way to claim that you are distinct from the masses.

In this case, the music won’t help you to geographically specify/identify the band. But the lyrics point at very specific situations, like the unfair mantra the IMF/Government/Press try to impose on the portuguese national subconscient (“You say we’re living beyond our means”, in Darktimes). Or the real cancer eating the portuguese society right now (“Lies and corruption like never before”, same song). Or the entire “Lisbon blues” explicitly citing the place and the facts.

I think Portugal deserves attention, in general, but especially now, and I was pleased to see a band like For The Glory (playing groovy hardcore, and representing the portuguese scene since a long time) giving up abstract angers and focus their agressivity on specific things.

the bandcamp

the facebook

the merch

the objectivity:

Daily Rock France (FR)

Echoes and dust (EN)

Metal France (FR)

Soundscape (EN)

Bring me the sound (FR)

Bandcom (PT)

Salad.days (IT)

For The Glory "Survival of the Fittest"

Fed up with 18 minutes songs of post-estonian deathgrind where sonic dissonances echo tortured jungian burning souls?

You want it raw, you want it straight, you want it simple and efficient ?

Appropriate time to listen to For the Glory's « Survival of the fittest » then.

This self-proclaimed portuguese hardcore legend may not surprise you or open the last of your extra-magnetic shakras, but sometimes, you just need a good old kick in the jaw rather some delicate tortures to get the adrenaline.

And that's what this album is about : hardcore considered as an olympic discipline (if curling is, why not hardcore?). The crew, on the roads for more than 10 years (that would explain the legendary status), delivers with these 11 songs a compact and coherent album in the good old NY style : youthful energy, big guitars, fat breaks. Fast and heavy as it should be, it also conveys a relative but persistant impression of positivity and optimism. I mean, it is the kind of album you can listen to when you are angry (good catharsis), but also when you are happy (on your way to the beach, for example). It can even be a good cure against some gloomy winter moods.

I stumbled against this « old » album (2007) when I started to get interested in the portuguese hardcore scene. In that aspect, For the Glory is almost as unavoidable as Stephen King for the horror/fantastic scene : it is just in the middle of it, seemingly since ever, and the more you would ignore it, the more you will notice its presence.

Unfortunately, the first times I listened to the album, I was not really convinced. As mentioned above (and for the last time in this review), For the Glory is not trying to re-invent the wheel according to some apocryphal plans found in David Gilmour's suitcase. So, as a result, inattentive listenings can make you think : « Ok, one more european clumsy emulation of Terror... ».

I was one of those skeptical pharisees...

Then, I had the opportunity to see them live. Very nice surprise. When I saw all these kids, girls and boys, sometimes surely half my age, going crazy in unison with the band, dancing, singing, smiling, having a good time, I had to admit : when you can get this frenzy from your fans, you can't deny you did the job right.

With this in mind, I went back to the "Survival of the Fittest". I spent two weeks listening to it on and on to finally understand that sometimes good music is not about new ingredients or techniques, but just a good strong recipe cooked with love and dedication. That's why your grandmother's rancho will always beat any carpaccio of salmon by Alain Passard.

You don't believe me ?

Check this song, and try to stay still.

Facibooki

Myspace

Listen and buy the album from Raging Planet

If you want to pre-own it: the True spirit.

the objectivity:
- if you want to know more (and better) about the band, a very interesting interview of FTG frontman by Idioteq.
- UnderReview (PT, but quite exhaustive)
- A Trompa (PT)