Short Fictions are a 6 piece Emo band from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. I first heard the them through groups such as Chon and TTNG. This led me down a Math rock/Emo rabbit hole. Their first album, 2019's 'Fates Worse than Death' is a masterpiece of the emo genre. A combination of heavy and light songwriting that is deeply moving to me.
The album begins with Fates Worse Than Death, Part I. Initially what seems like a slow, plodding track picks up intensity leads to into Part II. Vocals are a mixture of clean and harsh and greatly fit into the instrumentation.
At points the straight forward song structure can take a turn for the weird and complex. Cities under water contains a catchy verse that leads in to a pseudo black metal section. Blast beat drums and speedy guitars are upfront in this section. Then later around 2 minutes it switches to a math rock style. The unusually song structure keeps me invested in the music.
A mixture of production and song structure creates a unique sound scape that's extremely moving and captivating. An example of this would be the track 'I'm proud to know you, You are special.' A slow jam that crescendos over 2 minutes. As an interlude the track serves as a great break from the heavier moments of this album. One guitar plays a series of clean arpeggiated notes while a keyboard plays long held notes. In the foreground are distant audio clips from a couple movies. Over the duration of the track more instruments are added until the whole band comes in. This subtle approach to their song writing creates an infectious mood of melancholy, a feeling I find cathartic and a great release. My favorite tracks are 'Nothingness Lies Coiled at the heart of being' and 'Living in places like these can be bad for your health.'
