New Hampshire's Red Fez Records is a small, charming and quality-oriented independent record label that releases a handful of titles by serious musicians in variety of genres — avant-garde proggers Dreadnaught, warm indie rockers Mister Vertigo and eccentric noisemakers Museum of Science among them. Now comes The Screen, a dark and dramatic New England band that churns progressive metal, alternative metal and emo rock into a claustrophobically melodic wall of sound. Characterized by melancholy verses sung in a strong voice that nevertheless often seem disconnected from their heavy and aggressive choruses, The Screen plays crisp riffs and down-tuned power chords that sound best on songs like "Lotus," "Porcelain" and "Resolve," and the intricate interplay between the four musicians seems almost surreal. Guitarist Robert E. Beal III turns in a searing, transcendental solo on the intense closer "Rhode Island Song" — a piece of music that captures the entire essence of The Screen within a spellbinding seven and a half minutes.
Track Listing:
1) Antitrust
2) My Shining Regret
3) Lotus
4) Swing
5) The Agent
6) Divide
7) Porcelain
8) Resolve
9) V
10) Fiction
11) Rhode Island Song