Fall Victim: Overwhelming The Romans

Fall Victim was (and still is) one of Long Island's best kept secrets. Arising from the ashes of locals Suspect 7 & 40 Grit and the guitarist/vocalist of Watership Down, few expected the band to became what they did, especially since their former bands had little if any notoriety. What they did become was the opener who outplayed and outsold the headliner and just about every other band on the bill. For a band that lasted only a few short years just about everyone on Long Island had a patch on their bag from a band that seemingly came from out of nowhere and would disappear just as fast.

Their sound was what we all considered to be noisecore back then, a label that I seldom hear used to compare bands these days. Comparisons could be made to early Turmoil, Hourglass, 400 Years or even a more controlled Deadguy, Fall Victim was one of the few Long Island bands not wearing their influences on their sleeves. They would tear through sets of discordant guitars, piercing screams and complete chaos, somehow merging the "screamo" scene with the "metalcore" scene that was quickly dividing on the Island at the time.

Having only recorded a 4 song demo (and performing a radio show) was all they had in terms of a discography. While most bands were recording demos on 4 tracks, Fall Victim's demo recording was more clear and pristine which sounded almost odd considering their genre. It was a recording that worked both for and against them, since flaws can obviously be hidden within a more dirty sounding demo. The vocals were an obvious strongpoint which consisted of two tracks of both screaming and talking that gave the demo a sense of urgency and emotion. A style that sounds similar to the one that the vocalist from Bird Of Ill Omen was going for.

Fall Victim would eventually part ways with vocalist Adam and would go on to recruit frontman Ben Knight and emerge under the odd and rather amusing name "Ichor Of The Ukase." Shortly thereafter originally vocalist Adam would reunite with bass player Andrew (this time on guitar) to form another impressive and underappreciated band named Knives and Greenwater, who went on to release two split 7"s. Adam would go on to form and join bands like I Am The Resurrection, Helen Of Troy and most recently Gospel whose sound both vocally and musically could be traced back to the early blueprints laid with Fall Victim. Guitarist Rick formed End Of World Smile and the drummer Kris would go on to perform with Bandcamp who saw an Atlantic contract be both presented and taken away.
You can hear their demo in its entirety below

Fall Victim "Movement 1"
Fall Victim "Movement 2"
Fall Victim "Movement 3"
Fall Victim "Movement 4"