Fever 333 are determined to resist. Resist what? Pretty much everything that counts as a restriction. ‘Darker White’, their fourth full length outing, still perches outside genre definition, with the balance between hardcore, metalcore and hip-hop shifting between each song to prevent us even mentioning a “hybrid sound”. Somehow, in the two years since ‘Wrong Generation’ dropped, they’ve got even angrier, more vicious in their determination to address social injustice, and this renewed fire bleeds through every song. Jason Aalon Butler channels this into full throated, proper singing, a return to the vocal style we loved from his letlive days. Following his announcement on instagram that Fever333 will be cancelling all upcoming tour plans to enable him to focus on his mental health, we can’t help but also see ‘Darker White’ as a record of personal resilience; an expression of a personal desire to stay alive.
‘NO HOSTAGES’, rising fan favourite and advance single, is a near perfect summary of what ‘DARKER WHITE’ is all about. “You might be at home when they kill you; you might be alone when they kill you,” speculates Butler, and there’s something in his unflinching, furious grasp of police brutality that makes you wonder which of his experiences as a biracial person he’s channelling. Lyrically no punches are pulled, and with choruses that you can let loose to, this is a track with ‘anthem’ written all over it. ‘DESERT RAP’ acknowledges that sometimes what needs to be struggled against is yourself, and the police siren guitars make the whole track feel like an emergency.
Fever 333 never mince their words, making each syllable count in their struggle for recognition, and this is an album with just as much fervour as the rest of their back catalogue. From ‘HIGHER POWER’, which argues that the masses can take control over polemic hardcore discordance and riot energy, to ‘BULL & A BULLET’, which tackles the issues of racial inequality in incarceration statistics via stomping power beats, there’s a strong sense that ‘DARKER WHITE’ is a continuation of their mission to use their platform for good.
It’s not all moralising and discussions of the wrongs of society. Arguably the track with the most hip-hop energy, ‘NEW WEST ORDER’ carries on the proud tradition of rapping your own name in as many hooks as possible as a mini theme song, dipping into the samples cupboard and coming out with grinding, swaggering guitar and trap beats for all.
‘$WING’ powers along with hints of nu-metal in the background, but we’re all here for the line “swing batter batter swing” and a whole lot of swears. There’s fun to be found on ‘DARKER WHITE’, but it’s of the kind you’re warned not to do when you’re in high school. “I did it for the homies, and the nosebleeds,” explains Butler on ‘NOSEBLEEDS’, a melodic tribute to a life lived to the maximum. While it’s one of the more commercial tracks on this album, there’s a place for a less inflammatory track in the middle of the political outrage.
This is an album from a band who have found their role, running with the torch that Rage Against the Machine lit decades before. You’ll find yourself humming these songs days after listening, and considering the message behind Butler’s words for far longer. While there’s not a huge jump forward from previous songs like breakout hit ‘BURN IT’, that’s not necessarily a criticism. Fever 333 clearly have more to say from their current position before leaping forward into an evolved sound, and with the rapid changes in US politics happening around them, it makes sense to let the tweaks to their sound come from their response to new sources of injustice and oppression rather than trying to reinvent themselves. When Butler takes a moment to centre his own biracial identity, the personal connection within the brutality of the Fever 333 sound that was missing from previous releases solidifies to form a deeper resonance that was missing until now.
‘DARKER WHITE’ is an urgent and necessary step in the Fever 333 journey, and one that will stay with you long after a first listen.
KATE ALLVEY