In 2012, FACT gave us their knockout album BURUNDANGA, which was followed in 2014 by WITNESS, which in contrast felt patchy and unfinished, although peppered with a couple of great tracks. It’s a case of swings and roundabouts, clearly, as just one year later the six-piece post-hardcore group are back with KTHEAT! For anyone who hasn’t spotted the significance of the name, the letters are an abbreviation of the member’s names: Kazuki (guitar), Tomohiro (bass), Hiro (vocal), Eiji (drums), Adam (guitar), and Takahiro (guitar). Now three guitarists strong, and seemingly keen to abandon the pop melodics and rhythms of WITNESS, FACT are walking forward as a group into a much faster, more aggressive phase.
We are thrust immediately into a different sound in ‘The Way Down’, which starts out with a question-answer vocal and gang vocal from Hiro and the others. Steady pacing and simple arrangement where instruments drop in and out suddenly will keep listeners on their toes, and Adam’s distinctive screams accompanied only by drums in the middle eight build up the tension towards a heavy explosion of energy at the end.
After that powerful beginning, FACT wastes no time unleashing the rest of their energy in a sustained madness that takes us through the catchy chorus and frankly bonkers drumming of ‘Wait’,
the hardcore attack of ‘Worm’, the relentless vocals and bass of ‘Stick’, and later the anger and excitement of ‘Loop’. ‘Worm’ in particular manages to cover everything I could have wanted from this album- backing shouts you just can’t resist joining in with, hard scream vocals, sudden and disorienting changes of pace, one of my favourite choruses of the album, and another high power bridge (in fact, I’m convinced you could just play every middle eight of KTHEAT in sequence and still have your mind blown).
‘Swallow’ has a choppy time signature, which typically of FACT keeps listeners guessing (and incidentally makes it quite difficult to headbang consistently to), and falls apart about half way through into distortion and sliding on the guitars, accompanied by vocals that seem to collapse into the instrumentals. The announcement “we’re bringin’ it back” reunites the group and welcomes in a final roaring chorus.
As usual , FACT also incorporates an instrumental track into KTHEAT, this time titled ‘2-2’, and this latest experiment is better arranged than some of the previous ones, such as ‘2-1’ (of WITNESS, which was too hung up on dance music), but lacking in experimentation with recorded sounds, as in FACT’s ‘1-2’. Emerging from chaos comes a clean guitar riff which grows increasingly squeaky, unpredictable and distorted. Volume and instrumental changes at a moment’s notice gradually turn into a big mosh-pit worthy mess of guitar, bass and drums.
‘<3 Attack’ gives us a smoother, lighter opening, and quieter verse to start. The emptier feeling focuses on Hiro’s voice and stresses the central idea of the lyrics- in short, stick it to the man. The slower pace sets this track apart from the preceding, and opens the way for a really hard-hitting and much more emotional chorus than the others have been able to offer. In fact (no pun intended), this song grows to be really quite beautiful by the end, and has quickly taken its place as one of my top recommended tracks.
Towards the end of the album, FACT offers a few explorations into different genres- firstly with ‘Feel’, which has a definite punk-style drive behind its rhythm. The fast beat does drop into a heavier bass solo, but overall the pace keeps pounding and Hiro’s vocals are more tuneful. And just when I thought FACT might have skipped the ballads this time, ‘Over’ arrives as the penultimate track. It might not be the peaceful, cry-your-eyes-out tune you might expect when you hear the world ‘ballad’, but we are talking about FACT here- the lyrics are moving and reassuring, the pace slowed, and the emotion emphasized by the odd shout and some of the most melodic backing vocals of the album.
Finally, the band surprises with another experimental track- only ‘Haze’ is noticeably more atmospheric than ‘2-2’. The build-up is strikingly slow, with reverb creating an eerie sound, dense with texture, which eventually develops into a louder guitar solo, fuzzy with distortion and accented with a bell chiming a sweet melody over the top.
A mixed bag, perhaps, but not to the same extent as WITNESS, and I think in FACT’s case, that’s not a bad thing. The band has a clearly defined style through which they can channel many genres and sounds, keeping it all tied neatly (or not so neatly) together. The bridges in this album are unbelievably well-timed and powerful, providing the majority of the high points, but there are snippets of emotion and a whole lot of angry energy that keeps the album from ever sounding dull. This is not just a return to the strength of BURUNDANGA and FACT, it is a development and refinement of their winning post-hardcore sound.
Words by Lauren du Plessis