The Fierce And The Dead’s fourth album, ‘News From An Invisible World’, marked a bold step forward for the band. With that record, they took their already distinctive sound from an instrumental, post-rock sphere into something song based with the addition of Kevin Feazey’s vocals. This had the effect of making a couple of their songs sound a little like a more interesting Queens of The Stone Age with proggy inflections, but it proved they were willing to push boundaries to an extent that might even alienate some of their fans. It was such a dramatic shift, but it was a gamble that paid off; the album was well received by fans and press alike.

The band’s fifth album ‘Regional Theatre’ moves even further into song-based territory and sometimes shares a common thread with ‘Invisible World’, but also takes the time to try a few new musical experiments along the way. The first deviation from the “expected” comes straight out of the gate, when ‘Loungeside’ kicks off with one of the band’s heaviest riffs to date. Blending stoner vibes and doom intents, the slow, crushing sound showcases Steve Cleaton’s more intense guitar tones against Kev Feazey’s fuzz bass, creating something that sounds unstoppable. This is counterbalanced by some great atmospherics where quieter moments and a hushed vocal call back to A Perfect Circle, before the track settles into a blend of riffs that sound like a cross between Godsticks at their heaviest and Queens of The Stone Age at their more interesting. Those already familiar with the band will also hear some more complex but melodic prog-ish flourishes shining through, so in terms of openers, this certainly presents a very broad overview of TFATD’s talents.

‘The 1234’ isn’t quite as smart, but the tightly arranged number offers plenty of interest for the Fierce/Dead fan. Opening with a few abrasive guitar notes, the track immediately promises something rocky, then by introducing into a distorted riff that sounds like peak Sonic Youth hammering out ‘Richard III’ by Supergrass, the band tap into their noisier side with ease.
Dropping into a quieter verse, there’s a melodic core that blends the song-oriented sounds of ‘Invisible World’ with the crushing riffs of bits of ‘The Euphoric’, allowing everything to be easily recognisable. Feazey sounds even more comfortable with his role as vocalist here than he did on the previous album, while the contrast of distorted bass and shimmering guitar brings something to the fore that sounds like “classic” The Fierce And The Dead. Cleaton’s heavier guitar sounds suggest a weightiness in other places that will make this track an immediate favourite in the live set, and Stuart Marshall’s drumming appears able to shift between the different moods required while sounding very natural. There’s a lot packed into a little over three minutes, and although the overall sound would fit comfortably with the tracks on ‘Invisible World’, there are enough subtle differences to pique interest in the new sounds from this most cult of UK bands.

During the intro of ‘Shake Hands & Exit’, the band couple a riff that’s as direct as their fan favourite ‘Truck’ with a stoner rock edge to create something quite sinister. It also represents one of the heaviest moments on this album, with riffs to rival ‘Loungeside’. It’s then all change when a haunting, quieter verse drops into a waltzing time signature and Kevin Feazey shares a soft vocal that really adds to the growing feeling of unease. By the time the first chorus hits – bringing back the heavier riffs – it sounds unmistakeably like The Fierce And The Dead, yet at the same time, with a more confident vocal making great use of longer notes, it also comes with a feeling that the sounds of the previous album are venturing somewhere a little different. These contrasting moods are offset brilliantly by part of the chorus that works harmony vocals within more of a melodic rock setup, with everything underscored by Tom Hunt’s keys bringing a pleasingly full sound. Those factors would make ‘Shake Hands…’ work as a track, but in true Fierce/Dead tradition, there’s an extra layer of interest when an instrumental break turns everything on its head via an almost ambient interlude, giving the keys a bigger role. This actually makes the final riff and refrain feel even heavier when the twin guitars from Steve Cleaton and Matt Stevens hit at full force, Kev’s bass adopts a huge chugging sound, and drummer Stuart absolutely attacks his kit. With everyone delivering a massive riff that is guaranteed to sound even more impressive within the band’s live set, this is definitely one of ‘Regional Theatre’s immediate standouts.

Just as you feel you’ve got the general feel of ‘Regional Theatre’ sussed, Kev and company totally pull the rug out from under their audience with the brilliant – and hugely accessible – ‘Somehow’, a track that places some of the tinkling guitar sounds from the days of ‘Spooky Action’ over a backdrop of goth-pop, delivering something that sounds like a throwback to the genre’s 1989-92 heyday. Armed with a wonderful melody, this is almost “pop” by Fierce/Dead standards, whilst retaining a huge sense of heart, and presenting a gentle melancholy which is definitely appealing. In a massive musical contrast, ‘Dream Sequence’ kicks off with another huge metal riff, before twisting itself into a world of funk-edged basslines, light keyboard flourishes and melodic vocals. The heavy intro isn’t a red herring, though: the way it crashes back in to drive the chorus provides an uncompromisingly dense listen, before everything changes tack again, this time to drop the audience into a world of echoing vocals and atmsopheric riffs. Eventually, everything comes together for a driving riff that’s a fantastic blend of grunge and prog metal, thundering forth at speed, capturing the band’s current musical heart in a pleasingly direct way. Perhaps more so than on a few of the other tracks, this feels more like an exercise in supplying the heavy riffs rather than presenting a genuinely memorable song, but it still works very well.

Perhaps another surprise to fans will be the faint echo of melody from The Cure’s ‘A Night Like This’ at the heart of ‘Signal Bleed’, another goth-pop tinged experiment where the band’s lighter side is given free rein. More than before, this track makes it very clear what Tom brings to the band; throughout the number, his light piano strokes really add to the gothy vibes, and this track certainly wouldn’t work without him. With a wealth of great harmony vocals – and a couple of choir led interludes – this feels epic, but without the grandiosity that comes with so many prog-adjacent acts. This also has the potential to be the kind of track that will grow in appeal once the bulk of the material has had time to embed itself. Kev’s voice retains a light gothy tone throughout the verses of ‘Superbia’, but musically, this quickly becomes a number that sounds like absolutely nothing else in the Fierce/Dead canon. The chorus delivers some fine adult pop; stabbing pianos offer a genuine buoyancy, whilst harmony vocals and handclaps feed into a radio-friendly sound, pulling influence from a couple of old 10cc tunes, Bowie’s ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ and The Feeling’s ‘Twelve Stops Then Home’ LP. For those who might consider this some sort of betrayal to the band’s roots and to the monolithic riffs on numbers like ‘Truck’ and ‘Magnet In Your Face’, a massive curveball delivering a devastating doom metal riff redresses some balance, as well as showing how this band really don’t believe in working with a musical safety net. It’ll likely split opinion, but in terms of boldness, this performance is absolutely stunning. When, ahead of the album’s release, Matt Stevens claimed that the material would show TFATD at “their most pop…and their most metal”, nobody would have believed he might have been referring to aspects of the same track!

The punchier aspects of ‘Thrash’ find TFATD experimenting with a post-punk sound, which allows Matt to throw his signature ringing sound over spiky riffs on a great verse, before fleshing out a slower chorus against a soaring vocal. This has a very sharp sound; it’s well arranged and quite interesting, but the stylistic shifts might make it a little more of a slow burner with some of the fans. When a few rocky riffs and a buzzing bass eventually arrive during the track’s middle eight, there are closer parallels with material from the previous albums, though, so it’ll certainly win over some of the more critical fans in time. Elsewhere, ‘Hey Nightmare’ fuses a Motorhead riff with a New Wave of British Heavy Metal ferocity, whilst clinging onto Kev’s signature bass sound as a core. A phased vocal owes a little more to space rock and deep psych, setting up an odd contrast, but this number has so much energy, it works purely through sheer chuzpah, and ‘Hypernormalisation’ taps into a similarly rocky vibe to ‘Shake Hands…’, but adds enough of a twist via some strong vocals. Even at this stage, the band attacking this blend of stoner, grunge and post rock with vocals has started to feel familiar – making the angular sounds of older tracks like ‘Ark’ feel like they belong in a whole different world – but, in this case, it could be a good thing.

There are a couple of moments on ‘Regional Theatre’ that aren’t so much a big step forward for the band as a step sideways (‘The 1234’, ‘Shake Hands…’), but that said, the musicianship is top notch throughout, and when the album takes more of a “go hard or go home” approach – as it very much does on tracks like ‘Somehow’ and ‘Loungeside’ (both in very different ways) and especially on ‘Superbia’ – fans will definitely encounter Matt and the lads genuinely pushing their personal musical boundaries, giving people a mix of top flight riffs and sounds that hit the audience with a genuine sense of intent. Some of ‘Regional Theatre’ will take longer to stick than some of The Fierce And The Dead’s previous material, but when it does, the album’s best bits will be especially enduring, with the potential of everything creating a stronger body of work than ‘News from The Invisible World’. It goes without saying that fans will certainly want to add this record to their collection, but perhaps more than anything, this is the kind of record that will make an interesting entry point for the first time listener.

July 2026