Artist of the Week: Forgive Durden

Forgive Durden is an indie rock band from Seattle, Washington, who got their name from the popular novel, Fight Club. They are signed to Fueled by Ramen. Fueled by Ramen released Forgive Durden's first full-length album, Wonderland, on May 9, 2006.

On January 27, 2008, lead singer Thomas Dutton announced on the band's blog that the other 3 members had decided to leave the band, citing personality conflicts as the primary reason. He also announced that his brother Paul had been helping him write and record a new album, Razia's Shadow: A Musical with the help of Gatsbys American Dream's Rudy Gajadhar playing drums. It was not mentioned whether the other two had become full-time members of the band.

Nevertheless since I brought up Razia's Shadow: A Musical I should point out that is really what I want to talk about here. I thought there first album was good, but I think this CD is amazing and I have listened to it several times since its release on October 28, 2008. This CD is impossible to review because I have never experienced anything like it, so I am just going to start out by saying I love it and you need to hear. I must point out that I am typically not a fan of musicals, but some how this works for me. It probably has something to do with the fact that I really like Thomas Dutton’s voice from Forgive Durden and the CD also features many other artist I enjoy including Max Bemis of Say Anything, Greta Salpeter of The Hush Sound, Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco. Basically the album tells the story of a world divided in two by the selfish actions of a powerful and egotistical, yet insecure angel. After generations of darkness, the world is eventually brought back together by the love and sacrifice of a couple brave enough to fulfill their destinies. I don’t really know what else to say except you owe it to yourself to check it out. Typically I would just leave you a couple tracks off the album to sample, but you really must to listen to the whole thing to get the full story, so listen to it and let me know what you think.

List of characters:
O The Scientist - Casey Crescenzo (The Dear Hunter)
Bawaba Brothers - John Baldwin Gourley (Portugal. The Man), Kris Anaya (An Angle)
Narrator - Aaron Weiss (mewithoutYou)
Gargul The Oracle - Danny Stevens (The Audition)
Toba the Tura - Chris Conley (Saves the Day)
Sangara - Daniel Young (This Providence)
Barayas the Spider - Max Bemis (Say Anything)
Princess Anhura - Greta Salpeter (The Hush Sound)
Pallis - Brendon Urie (Panic at the Disco)
King Malka - Nic Newsham (Gatsbys American Dream)
Doctor Dumaya - Shawn Harris (The Matches)
Nidria - Lizzie Huffman (Man in the Blue Van)
Adakias - Thomas Dutton (Forgive Durden)
Ahrima - Thomas Dutton (Forgive Durden)

And I will leave you with a video for the song Ants from Forgive Durden's first album just to give you a taste of what that album sounds like, which is really nothing like Razia's Shadow, but I still enjoy.