Zedi Forder is a UK heavy rock/alt-metal trio on the verge of releasing their first studio album, a self-titled offering. I would compare this band to a bright-eyed college student. An individual who, after a semester of heavy studying and lecture time, is asked to write that final paper as a culmination of what they have learned that year. This person is full of great ideas, and they are hell-bent on exploring them all. However, doing so is a trap. There are restrictions on how much one can produce, so all of these ideas never fully form. The lesson learned is, less is often more. Distilling a few major themes results in a more solid and cohesive final piece and will showcase the abilities of the student far more.
This isn’t meant to be harsh, because I actually liked a lot of things in Zedi Forder’s music. These guys have a real talent for writing groovy lines. They write robust and layered grooves in “I’m the One” and they can do stripped down modest lines like those present in “Open Wide”. This album is also full of really interesting and quirky guitar lines that add these signature moments to the music. The rich and warm tones that wax and wane throughout the verse of “They Love it More” add such a wonderful depth. As a show of range, “My Moon” uses guitar to drive the song from start to finish, blending styles seamlessly. The vocals across the entire album are perfectly suited for each song – clean 99.9% of the time, but to me fit each song like a glove. These strengths combined with an an eccentric juxtaposition of upbeat tones and dark lyrics make for an album that has a subtle complexity when you start to peel back the layers.
Zedi Forder
Despite all my praise, I beg you to recall the college student analogy. Zedi Forder try to do too many different things from song to song, so that the flow of the songs and album suffer. Take “They Love it More”. In the first minute of this song, there is an 80s style synth wall for 30 seconds, followed by a basic punk line for 30 seconds, before finally converting into that warm guitar line I wrote of earlier. I am all for mixing genre and style within a track, but the shifts are so jarring and do nothing to bolster each other. The punk line returns after the first chorus to disrupt what is an emotional feeling song. “Dark Mook” suffers similarly with an intro ripped directly from an Alexisonfire track, with the song taking a total detour afterwards. I feel that this is the band giving homage to the bands that have influenced them musically. This comes up again on “On the Run” as the riffing would fit in nicely on any Metallica album.
At the end of the day, there is more to love about this album than not. Zedi Forder is made up of talented musicians who are capable of producing not just good, but great music. With more focus on their sound, success will not be far behind for this Woking, Surrey three-piece. So do yourself a favour and on June 10th, get to Zedi Forder’s Bandcamp and check out this full release of their self-titled debut album complete with four acoustic tracks (which are all well done). Support this band on a pay what you want basis, before they get too big to make that offer in the future.
Band Website: www.zediforder.com
“I ‘m the One” (Live Rehearsal):
Bandcamp (with bonus past band content and 4 track sneak peak of Zedi Forder debut): tricore.bandcamp.com/album/zedi-forder-the-album-out-10th-june-pre-order-to-get-4-tracks-entire-flame-wiz-album-now
