Going Feral - Is it too late?
It only seems like yesterday when I reviewed West-Yorkshire band Going Feral and their debut single ‘Ghoul Rebellion’ back in May 2020. Like everyone, their plans to record and play live have been given a swift kick in the balls and had their wallet stolen just for good measure. But now they’re back with their second single ‘Too Late, Already It’s Too Late’, and it’s an epic.
Going Feral are a three-piece instrumental outfit consisting of Alex Diffley on drums, with guitars handled by both Yuri Kozorezov and Rob Burns. We’ve also reviewed Rob’s other band Radio Aftermath in the article above, and about their second single ‘We Eat The Buffalo’ in November. It’s fair to say that Going Feral being a trio certainly affords them a greater sense of freedom, in the absence of a bassist and vocalist.
I knew this would be good from the time I saw the length of the track. You don’t put together a piece that’s ten minutes long if you don’t have something decent to say in it. ‘Too Late, Already It’s Too Late’ begins with a muted guitar line, melodic with a touch of reverb. Then Alex brings in more guitar with a drum beat that refrains from being full on, in keeping with the muted guitar line. The second guitar is strummed, that would work equally well on acoustic guitar, which is then joined by a third lead guitar line that delicately tip-toes around the fretboard.
I love Alex’s ride cymbal play, which in an expanded line-up could be played by an individual percussionist. His snare work is considered, not forceful, in keeping with the dynamic of the piece. As well as that, the snare itself actually has warmth, not like the rigidly compressed stick hit sounds designed to punch you in the face. In heavier bands, modern drum sounds all tend to be at one level, mostly due to engineering and mixing, which I think is a shame. No sign of that here though, this is a breath of fresh air.
As the melodic instruments cut out, Alex works around the kit in relative silence, changing up the beat before Yuri and Rob alter the song entirely. Working together, one guitar is all chords, whilst the other takes care of the low-end crunch mirroring the drum sound, then a third comes in like before with a lead guitar line. The chord guitar then takes the lead, laced with reverb. The drums hold back and something that sounds like a synthesizer entirely surprises me. I love those slow guitar runs, circling around the listener before chugging guitar brings a noisier element from Alex that continues on until the end. A full EP of this would be a force to be reckoned with.
Can we play it again?
1. ‘Too Late, Already It’s Too Late’ is the title of your new single. Where does the name of the track come from when there are no lyrics to base it off?
Yuri Kozorezov (Guitars): We have been searching for a name for this tune since it was first written more than a year ago. It was simply called the middle one for quite some time.
Alex Diffley (Drums, Peep Show Trivia): Peep show series 1, episode 1 - when Sophie sits on Marks hand on the bus and doesn't tell her.
2. Rob, how did the writing come together for this single? Was it a lot of smaller ideas woven together to make a bigger piece?
Rob Burns (Guitars): Yeah, initially Yuri had the quiet riff that drives the first half of the song. And then because I am always listening to heavy shit; I got the itch to go louder and wrote the riff that kickstarts part 2, I also had the melodic tapping solo part that accompanies this in my locker, which I’ve been trying to put into a song for years now. A very simple part, but I love how it sounds.
From there we were just bolting on cool sounds to fill everything out until we were happy. For the longest time the final third of the song had no fixed structure and was just us looping the wall of noise chords over and over, progressively adding more pedals into the mix until Alex gave us the go home signal with one of his fills. Whereas now we have a definitive ending.
3. Alex, I love the drum sound on this track, what kit are you using and where was the song recorded?
Alex: I'm not much of a gear geek, unlike the guitar boys... I'm just a thump monkey. It was just the studio kit! we recorded at GN studios in Huddersfield. Although we did use a shit load of mics, including several staged room mics which helped build some natural reverb.
4. Yuri, it sounds like there's some keyboard towards the end of this track. Was it keyboard or creative use of guitar?
Yuri: The sounds you are talking about come from the boss sy-1 synth pedal. It is one of their recent releases and it has become an instant classic. Playing through it really feels like controlling an actual synth with your guitar, and I could talk about it for hours, even though I am not endorsed by Roland! (Yet!) So one could actually say there is nothing smart about it.
5. A question for the whole band - if you were going to make a music video for 'Too Late...', what would that look like?
Yuri: We couldn't decide on what we would like the video to be during our various discussions. It would have to be something cinematic. In fact, we would be happy for people to shoot their own versions as long as they specify and give proper credit to the track!
Alex: Doggys.
Rob: I second Alex’s idea… Due to the ongoing end of the world we can’t meet up, so filming the old standard of us thrashing about in an abandoned warehouse somewhere is out of the question so it would need to be a lovely mashup of stock footage, or something animated if we had the budget. Sugar Horse did an excellent longform video for their track The Great Shame, blending the song with a documentary called Heart of an Angel – that would have been something cool to do, but very difficult to pull off without looking like a bunch of johnny-come-latelys!
6. What's everyone listening to right now? Recommend me some tracks!
Alex: Robohands - Shapes, Casper Clausen - better way
Yuri: If I could recommend just one band to anyone it would have to be Earth. There's so much emotion in the minimalism of their music. It might not be something that is instantly catchy, but it opens up to a dedicated listener in a new dimension with each play.
Rob: Sugar Horse – The Great Shame (and all of their recent EP). The new Every Time I Die singles – A Colossal Wreck, and Desperate Pleasures, Palm Reader’s recent album especially A Bird and It’s Feathers, and lastly, Sheffield math rock band Great Deeds put out an EP last year called Can’t Dance, Bear that is a lovely time.
7. It looks like 2021 could be the year Going Feral releases an EP, what can you tell us about that?
Alex: Its certainly part of the plan
Yuri: We are currently polishing up the demos for 2 more tracks and are planning to record them within the nearest future. "Too Late..." and those subsequent tunes will make up the core of the ep. I think this is all we can say at the moment.
Rob: Yeah, I’ve all but given up on making plans right now. We said mid-late 2021 as we were (very) cautiously optimistic that things might start to ease by then, but who can honestly say? For now since we cannot rehearse in person, I’m just stockpiling song after song after song, so by the time we can meet in a room, and there is no associated guilt and the shame of sneaking around I might have a double album written!
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Follow Going Feral on Facebook and Instagram @goingferalband.
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