Is it really 13 years since a new band going by the name The Fierce & The Dead released Part 1, a long, sprawling cosmic jam on once-popular website MySpace? Astonishingly it is, although while that particular social networking site may have fallen into obscurity, the same cannot be said for the London-based quartet who play a bespoke brand of invigorating instrumental alt-rock.
Their last full-length studio release, 2018’s The Euphoric, was viewed by many fans and critics alike as their finest album up to that point. However, in the five years since that record, a lot has changed within and without the band. There was Covid, of course, and, more personally, guitarist Matt Stevens’ cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery, both of which understandably slowed the band’s momentum to a near halt. Perhaps it was the enforced break and events closer to home, but it’s been a time in which the band have evolved and grown.
