Inner Fear – First Born Fear CD review

Formed by Marthus (the ex machine behind the drums of Cradle of Filth) in 1997, Inner Fear are back after a long hiatus with their first album in nine year. First Born Fear is a ten track, power house of a gothic metal album, bringing together atmospheric keyboard effects, lightning fast blast beat drumming and dark, earthy vocals – to form an album which is far better than most of Cradle of Filth’s back catalogue. Marthus deserves a gold medal for this album, and to top off his song writing and performing skills the listener is also presented with a kick ass album cover, depicting some tourniquet, quite scary looking doll’s head mangled on some robust machine. Freaking excellent!   

There isn’t one dull moment on First Born Fear and every song has its twists and turns, catching the listener out, making them expect the unexpected. One minute there will be the epic moan of a church organ, the next a blistering riff will smash you right in the face. From ‘Fear Proclaimed’, to ‘I Watch the Blood Forever’, Inner Fear manage to hook the listener from the word go, keeping them mesmerised in atangled web of gothic metal mayhem. You have to listen to this album more than once to fully appreciate the excellent song writing skills behind it, and when that button finally clicks, you will realise why Inner Fear deserve to be huge.

The musicianship is excellent on this album, and it’s the sheer amount of moments where each instrument that has their time to shine, which makes this album memorable. You would have thought that because Marthus was a drummer of one of the world’s greatest metal bands, First Born Fear would have been very much drumming orientated. But you only have to listen to the likes of ‘Imprisoned in Forgotten Showers’, ‘Love is a Poisonous Cunt’ and ‘Our Crimson Deeds’, to show that the rest of the band plays such an important part in making Inner Fear’s sound perfect.

The only problem with this album is that there could be a few more tracks on it. After listening to the tracks ‘Lustmistress’ and ‘Secret Holders’, you are left gobsmacked, begging for more. Sure, ten songs is a decent amount for an album. But if Inner Fear knew how awesome First Born Fear is, they will be wishing they had put a few more tracks on it, to fully ensure that this album is pure perfection!

First Born Fear will leave you eating out of Inner fear’s hands, and better off still, Inner Fear will have adopted some crazy new fans into their ranks. This is an album which needs to be blasted out loud for all to hear. So go to the bands official website, (as it is free to download at the moment) and download it this second…… You thought gothic metal couldn’t get any better. Wait till you get a load of Inner Fear. [8/10]