It's now time for our 189th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, and this month's album is two decades in the making for their fans, namely reunited local midwest emo/post-hardcore trio Fuller's sophomore album "II"! The long awaited follow-up to their 2002 self-titled EP (which has not yet been reviewed on the SMS), "Fuller II" was recorded last year at Unsalted Audio with producer Dustin Goodall and at Mark's own Bandage A/V, before being mixed by Greg Dawson at BWC Studios in Kingston. The album was independently released to major streaming services on Friday via the Advance Records imprint. While the band had asked fans about interest for putting it out on physical formats, it is currently a digital exclusive. Fuller are represented here by founding singer/guitarist Jamie Vincent (of AlgomA and Bad Back fame) alongside mid-2000s bassist Mark Rand (now of Peterborough's Cross Dog), while Convergence drummer David Peredun takes over for Nathan Sauve behind the drumkit.
Dustin (who is also producing Convergence's newest studio material) guests on "additional instrumentation" on the album, while original Fuller drummer James Kersley provides guest vocals on "Six". You can buy "II" on Bandcamp for $7 or on iTunes for $9.99, and it is streamable for free on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and yes, even Boomplay, though consider buying the mp3 copies to fully support Fuller's work! Just to clarify the album's makeup, the songs on offer are almost all unrecorded originals from their late-period run in the mid-2000s, and they are presented here in the order they were performed at their December 2023 reunion concert at LopLops Lounge, aside from the two covers being replaced by short filler songs in the same spots. Nathan retains a songwriting credit alongside Jamie & Mark on all songs but "Six", which was written by Jamie, James, and former guitarist Dan Fagan for their 2002 EP. With 10 songs running for about 42 minutes, let's begin this review with its first song!
"II" opens up with "Batteries From Old Flashlights", which is an upbeat and melodic song that midwest emo fans should take to! Jamie's vocals are an adjustment from his later heavier band work (granted, not so if you were a Fuller diehard in the 2000s), but his tone fits this song well, and he and Mark pair well musically! David's a considerable talent on drums, so he was a good acquisition if they couldn't bring Nathan back, and the percussion has a nice variance! I don't find that the closing instrumental was the ideal capper to the song, especially after the false ending, but it's a solid opener! Next up is "And I End", which was the album's first advance single, which is a slower and more deliberate number that reminds me more of some of the more mainstream emo bands of this era, but with a rawer indie rock edge and a lively punk spirit. Not my favourite style of the punk/rock subgenres but it gets the job done well for emo and alternative fans!
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The melodies and strong lyrics are there, and while I prefer heavier than this, I see how this song was a good choice for a first single! I should also note that this song ends with what sounds like a cassette tape or 8 track player being stopped and fast forwarded, and the opener began similarly, so we'll have to see if that recurs. The third song on offer is "I Will Crush You", which has a jaunty instrumental opening for the first 68 seconds or so, before the song proper really kicks into high gear. It sounds like Mark singing lead on this song, and his gruffer, punkier vocals actually are a good contrast to the song itself, which remains light and upbeat. The song doesn't work as well for me when there aren't vocals, and as there are only lyrics present for 2 minutes of this 5+ minute song, so I'd have edited it down to accentuate the balance of styles. Well performed with good guitar even still!
Fourth on the album is the first filler song (replacing their cover of American Football's "Honestly?" from the reunion concert). Entitled "A", this album-low 52 seconds-long track again has the tape playback effect, and is an acoustic number, full title possibly "A Picture Is Worth A Million Words". Very raw and intimate, perhaps a little too lo-fi for my liking against the surrounding songs, but your mileage may vary! I'd rather it have been fleshed out more with the full band and longer runtime. That's followed by "Image In My Sight". This song has more of a pop punk spirit to it, but still played mid-tempo and with am emphasis on Jamie's vocals, which have good passion and intent to go along with the lyrical themes. The choruses are amped up in heaviness a bit, and this is another song where David shines on drums!
Not a bad number that plays to their strengths as a band, so it's an early highlight! Before songs get (mostly) longer, the album's first half concludes with "Love Is Always Better When You're Dreaming", which has long been familiar to fans via this classic Oddfellows Hall video. Another light rocker that emo fans will be at home with, this song never really jumps off the track it begins on until the last 30 seconds for me, so it kinda coasts despite good intentions and lyrics. Again, Mark's vocals (in the final chorus) contrast well with the light emo stylings, and I'd have included him more on the mic! In place of their cover of Moneen's "The Passing Of America" from the reunion gig, song #7 is the other filler track, entitled "B". Nothing to do with Newgrounds or StrawberryClock here, this is an 89 seconds-long instrumental with a very quaint, kinda eerie sound like you're paddling on an endless sea.
Closing again with tape deck controls, this works better as a composition for me than "A" does, and while a tonal shift from the proper songs, it sets an isolated mood that stands on its own! The album closes with its three longest songs with steadily increasing runtimes, with track #8 being "Can You Die From Embarrassment?". After a near 2-minute long intro, this song proper really is the softest yet of anything other than "A" & "B", but Jamie (and Dustin?) unleash some spacey guitar to bridge verses, which is a neat change of pace, and the song picks up in liveliness with a fuller (no pun intended) sound in the final minute, with everyone getting into rocking territory to send the song out on a high. Good ideas and creativity here, but when it was just a gentle, emotional song, it dragged a bit before they started shaking things up, but for pure composition skill, there's something here!
The penultimate song is also the second advance single release, namely "Kerosene", which was a later song wrote by Fuller that was taking them away from midwest emo and towards post-hardcore and psych rock. On this number, Jamie and Mark split vocal duties while playing lively if laid back instrumentation that will definitely please emo and indie rock fans, but the almost two minute-long bridge was overkill to me. It's not a bad song for genre fans, if not quite as post-hardcore influenced as I assumed, but it could stand to be edited down, and I wouldn't have had the song segue directly into the closer, especially with how abruptly "Kerosene" ended at 6:27 before shifting gears into what became the final song, "Six". This is actually a re-recording of the untitled sixth song from Fuller's 2002 EP (which had no song titles), hence why James returned on guest backing vocals. If you've heard the original, the 2025 revision is an improvement all around!
Running for almost two extra minutes (counting the ending transition in "Kerosene"), the instruments are louder, more intense, and more dynamic on this version, which leans more into midwest emo but with trancelike qualities and more of a stream of consciousness structure with plainly sung vocals. David's drumming really helps the energy level, and while the extended jam nature of the song will be an acquired taste for some, they do spice it up with a slowly escalating rock base and good weather-influenced sound effects and a siren. Plus, while much longer than 2002's version of this song, the ending is way less drawn out. Definitely better than the first take, and I'd be curious to see Jamie, Mark, and David tackle the other five songs from 2002!
"Batteries From Old Flashlights", "Image In My Sight", and "Six" were probably my favouite of the full songs, while I did appreciate what "B" was going for! In terms of drawbacks, some songs had too long of instrumental bridge sections, "A" would have been better served as a full song, I'd have completely separated "Kerosene" from "Six", and I'd like to have heard more of Mark's vocals. Anything else would be nitpicking given my own musical preferences, let alone the angrier, more in-your-face music that Jamie and Mark got up to in the 2010s and beyond, but this is a quality reunion album that answers questions that old school fans had about Fuller's unreleased original material from the Mark era, and it'd be awesome to see other contemporary local bands from the early-mid 2000s do the same! Hopefully a proper release concert happens when Mark is home again in the near future, but I hope you guys liked this month's CD review!
Next month's reviewed album is not clear yet, but it will not be of Fuller's debut EP or anything unreviewed by Sykotyk Rampage or Agnosticism due to our six month anti-bias buffer period between reviews of the same band. If we have to dip into the archives for a spell before reviewing HeadFirst's new album in May, likely candidates would be albums relating to performers at this Saturday's Inner City Surfers/Room 206 reunion concert. Possibly "Junk In The Trunk" or "Whiskey Will Be Our Sun"? Stay tuned as April progresses, and look for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!
