New Band of the Week: In Fear

Bristol band In Fear have cooked up a ferocious metal sound that fuses violent riffs, bonecrushing rhythms and intense vocals with dreamy, atmospheric melodies that they describe as “dreamlike, ominous and dark.”

The band originally formed in 2017 as In Fear They Follow but, after several changes that see the current lineup of Haydn Connolly (vocals), Ben Threlfall and Ryan Simmons (guitars), Sam Kellaway (drums) and Sam Elswood (bass), they took on the shortened name in 2020. And, as they tell us, the name change “was also to reflect the shift sonically and the new direction that the band was taking with the music.”

And on the sound the band has honed over the last few years, Ryan tells us: “I would definitely say ominous, the music often has a very dark atmosphere to it and we use the tension that this creates to build into some really heavy moments. Vocally, the songs have melodies that feel dreamlike and drift through the choruses and sombre sections. The sound has a huge amount of instrumental groove to it too, as well as moments of raw aggression.”

Our first taste of this was the recent single The Blinding White, which opens up with moody electronic sounds and crushing blastbeat guitars. Mellow vocals open up before huge screams take over and flow into intense cleaner vocals with huge instrumental support.

Huge stabbing guitars support screamed vocals that end on a wild growl, before light instrumentals and distant screams then clean vocals drop into a lingering electronic sound. Just when you think it’s done, crushing guitars and drums come in to bring the track to an enjoyable conclusion.

On the track, Ryan says: “The Blinding White is an ethereal track and conveys a lot of emotion. The song has a huge amount of groove to it with some really heavy moments that avid metal listeners will enjoy. The song structure is also quite different, from how the song starts to a huge crescendo at the end of the song after a long quiet break. If you’re looking for something a bit different and refreshing we’d like to think you’d enjoy this track.”

The track comes from the band’s debut album All Is. All Shall Be, which is out on 5 May but is being teased with a steady release of singles, of which The Blinding White was the fourth. Since then, they’ve released the intense Rest and, more recently, Narrow Gate, which opens up with electronic noise that drops into a crushing, bouncy guitar riff. Engaging vocals take over with a rumbling bassline and gather intensity as chunky guitars join in. A huge chorus gives way to a bouncy riff, which drops into ominously light electronic sounds. And it soon explodes with a booming riff, vicious vocals and wild drums, which feed into an intense chorus. Check out this huge track here:

On their debut album as a whole, Ryan told us: “We honestly can’t put it across in words how exciting this is for us to finally get the album out there for you all to listen to. We’ve worked tirelessly on this album for a long period of time and have had many hurdles along the way, so to finally reach the finish line for this process is just a massive relief. We’re so proud of this music and can’t wait to see what people think of it, the feedback so far has been nothing short of incredible and we’ve had support from so many amazing publications as well as fans.

“From the album as a whole, I’d like to think people can expect something that tries to explore new territories, or at least breaks the mold in some ways, enough to grab your attention. We’ve focused on creating a sound and an atmosphere on this album that we think people will really enjoy but does something different to what people may have heard before. There are a lot of really heavy tracks on the album, but there are also some very contrasting moments that are unexpected, where we explore a complete change in atmosphere. The album has a lot of tracks on it and we can’t wait for people to get lost in the world that we’ve created here.”

For another taster of this, check out the album’s third track release Purest Fire here:

In Fear’s members enjoy very different musical tastes and influences. But their sound is influenced by a shared love for the likes of Silent Planet, Loathe, Thornhill, Northlane and Deftones, as well as Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey.

And on what inspires them to write music, Ryan explains: “We’re really interested in films and psychological horror movies and games, all of which had a lot of influence when writing the album.

Typically, we write about fictional topics and create characters accompanied by a narrative. That way, much like a writer with a novel, we can convey our thoughts and feelings about the world through the characters and situations we create in our lyrics and music. I think that we work best creatively when we write in this way, as the music can be written with a certain atmosphere, emotion or situation in mind and links with the narrative we have created.”

2023 is set to be a very busy year for In Fear as they release their debut album and head out on tour alongside it. There are no details available yet, but it will be a UK tour, so keep your eyes open for more on that. Aside from that, they’re already planning ahead for new music for the next album and they’ll playing a few UK festivals, also yet to be announced.

And Ryan adds: “The support from everyone so far for the singles we’ve released has been incredible, a huge thank you to everyone who has checked us out, streamed our music, bought merch etc. We’ve got pre-orders available for our debut album and merch bundles available on our website.”

You can follow In Fear on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.