False Fed: Let Them Eat Fake

While many supergroups fall well and truly short of the potential they offer on paper, when the results line-up to your expectations it makes the creative concept worth it. While JAAW were firmly in the latter category on the back of their 2023 debut LP, Supercluster, they have company in False Fed.

Comprising of Discharge singer Jeff Janiak (previously of Broken Bones, Dead Heros and Wasted Life), Amebix guitarist Stig C. Miller, Nausea, Ministry, Amebix drummer Roy Mayorga and bassist JP Parsons, the collaboration sees each member combine to form a new sound world cloaked in a darkness and mystique that feels as relevant as ever.

On their debut album, Let Them Eat Fake, Janiak steers this ship through the ravaging high seas in something that is impassioned, marginal art for outliers. Whether it be punks or metal heads, False Fed not only harness a torrent of carnage. They meet it head on.

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From the grimy underbelly of society that inspired Ministry to the lightening sonics of Discharge, False Fed concoct a wicked brew that is pulled directly from the dark frontiers.

Starting with the atmospheric dirge of Superficial. Darkwave post-punk that sounds like Band of Susans and Motörhead colliding in white-hot rage. Here False Fed deliver something with the sort of sound vibrations that cross the same frequencies as early Cult. Here, however, Janiak and Co. deliver something grittier with more street-level relevance.

The Tyrant Dies and Echoes of Comprise are thundering currents of noise that contain a fist-in-the-air optimism this world needs now more than ever. With both song titles alone, you can’t help but feel an unsettling prescience in the wake of the atrocities of the past several days. Of course, for those of us in the privileged position of living in a democracy, we can frame our own narratives as we see fit, but with the sole question of art, in this instance False Fed find the power in it.

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The same truths can be found during The Big Sleep. An imposing hulk of misery, as Janiak calls on paranoia and shallow graves that form the kind of the imagery of an endless hell. Meanwhile, Dreadful Necessities sees the band piecing together the shards from the same scrapheap Killing Joke inhabited in their early days. Fire and brimstone post-punk howling from the depths of ruin.

Then there’s the raw spirited rancour of Mass Debate. Atmospheric crust punk with added scorn that leads into final cut, The One Thing We Cannot Avoid. A spoken word sermon as Janiak parts with a grim reality. (“We can sink / Or we can swim / But we all drown /The one thing we can’t escape is death.“)

It’s the underlying message of Let Them Eat Fake. An album that goes against the grain, and as so many other bands these days fail to grapple with the harsh truths this world has to offer, False Fed embrace the hopelessness that continues to build like a screaming shit storm. Straight down the line and no nonsense, False Fed tell it like it is. There are simply no half measures.

Let Them Eat Fake is out Friday via Neurot Recordings. Purchase from Bandcamp.