27. Album Preview of Feather Led by Amble Haunt

Originally published August 7th, 2024

About the Artist

Amble Haunt is a two-man project that are currently calling Kansas, Missouri home. Frontman, Bryce Veazey and drummer Brandon Woodall are a  new band and already, they are producing a sound that reveals peak potential.

“Music has a way of haunting. Lyrics, rhythms, and melodies can live in the atmosphere around our lives for decades.” Amble Haunt begins their bio in Spotify by saying this to explain their name. As I read their bio and listened to Feather Led, I began to hear what they mean. They have a fresh new sound, with complex guitar, intricate rhythms, and a unique vocalist that helps them stand out. Today, they would most similarly compare to Utah rockers, The Backseat Lovers. As I continued to listen, I began to feel haunted by memories of songs and bands I had heard from my past. Namely, an indie rock band from Iowa that had a flicker of mainstream success in the 00’s. The Envy Corps had a unique vocalist, a haunting ambience with their use of background soundscapes filling the silence, and boasted complexities with their instrumentation. With songs like Wires and Wool and Pip Pip, they were poised to make a name for themselves. In an article on examiner.com, they were even named “the greatest band you’ve never heard of.” Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out for them and they played their last show in 2023 after several breaks and hiatuses.

Amble Haunt have many of the same tools as these bands, also pulling sounds resembling Radiohead of old (The Bends through OK Computer era), and that is definitely very good company to be in. They are releasing “Feather Led” on August 9th, so make sure you check them out!

About the Album

Feather Led is an 11-Song LP with a runtime of approximately 42 and a half seconds. It’s heavily influenced by indie and alternative rock. It features acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and various different keyboard/effects.

Vocally, Veazey offers up a true tenor voice. He has the fortune of having a unique and pleasant tonal quality that allows him to be distinguished from a room full of singers. His delivery is mostly controlled and clear, while there are moments where rock and roll takes over and he dirties up the mic. There are moments in a few songs where backing vocals are deployed to fill sound space and the harmonization is executed in a variety of different ways, all very pleasing to the ear.

About the Music

Amble Haunt deploy a variety of different techniques to bring quality sound to Feather Led. The album opens with subtlety on the track, “Obscurity.” It features an acoustic guitar playing dissonant chords and a synthetic layering that has an organ type sound with a little saw effect to it. Vocally, Veazey gives a, no pun intended, haunting vocal performance with a more structured choral part that offers backing vocals as well.

The sound picks up with “Over/Under,” featuring the full band element. Veazey’s vocal performance is more energetic, and features a slight megaphone effect in parts but that pulls away as the song develops. Backing vocals feature on this chorus as well. The guitar riffs through the verses and sounds like power octaves for the chorus.

Amble Haunt display a lot of tricks in their bag musically, using different techniques to show the diversity of their performance. “Corner Fold” features both lead guitar solos as well as arpeggiated rhythms. The drummer, Brandon Woodall, also shows multi-faceted capabilities with his talent, giving us many different rhythmic patterns. This helps tremendously, as to not give the listener the same 4/4 pattern over and over. He is a pocket player but isn’t afraid of a fill, and is able to use the full scope of his kit. Woodall makes excellent choices when controlling the builds and transitions musically. 

One of my favorite songs on the album is “Forever Resolute,” which is Amble Haunt’s version of a power ballad with a slight build on the choruses. The verses feature arpeggiated chords by the guitar and very groovy drums. I love how the choruses have musical breaks to feature the vocal performance. The song builds with anticipation, and has a resolving chorus. 

About the Lyrics

Lyrically, Veazey showcases a dynamic capacity to write as well. Using methods of analogy in some places, storytelling in others, he’s also given us wxamples of philosophical and deeper thought provoking lines as well. 

In the song “Blame,” he opens immediately with the line “Just trust is never quite enough. And what’s worse, we ate it up.” The verse goes on to tell the story of a narrator so willing to rush to a commitment in a relationship to find themselves “hanging off the ledge,” as they transition to the chorus that is addressing the subject in first person. 

Opening with the line, “Because you cheated me. Oh how you cheated me. Of the fall.” The chorus is interesting here because it almost talks over its own logic. The narrator sets the listener up to anticipate a story where they put their trust in their feelings or the relationship of the subject and the subject betrays their trust. Then, as the chorus develops, it speaks of how the subject cheated the narrator of the fall. The narrator is laying at the bottom and placing “blame” on the subject for telling them to let go. 

Initially, I felt as if we were going into a story about a relationship where the subject was unfaithful to the narrator. But after the chorus, it feels as though the trust was broken by honesty. Which is a thing, believe it or not. The narrator is trusting the subject with their heart and their feelings. It can feel like a betrayal if the subject ends the relationship, breaking the narrator’s heart and hurting their feelings. The subject was honest about their feelings, it just wasn’t the same as how the narrator felt. I felt this interpretation with how the narrator explains they were cheated of the fall and how they also claimed the subject advised them they should “let go of the ledge.” 

In the second verse, the narrator is struggling with the breakup, having to come to terms with the fact they are alone. With lines like “What’s worse than being alone,” and “It ain’t true, learn to live and lose,” the narrator is articulating the difficulties of moving on.

The second chorus and outro speak more on the narrator coming to terms with the end of the relationship and a hopeful closure as they are trying to figure out a way to move on.

I love how the lyrics transition to different phases of telling this story. It is emotionally relatable as it gives us information on the action, it creates sympathy/empathy by illustrating the feelings the actions cause, and we also understand how the narrator has learned valuable lessons from this experience and from experiences prior to the relationship with the philosophical depth that is expressed from the narrator.

Final Thoughts

Feather Led is a very good album. The songs are dynamic, the instrumentation is skillful, original, and pleasant to the ear. The vocal performance is stunning. Bryce Veazey has really showcased his talent. He has great control of his higher range and he shows strength in his various ways of delivering the melody to his listeners.

I wanted to recognize the production process as well. “Feather Led was recorded in August and September of 2023 at Remmy Lou’s in Charleston, SC. It was produced, mixed, and mastered by Nathan Hussey. Engineering, production, and auxiliary percussion were performed by Dominic Nastasi.”

Feather Led releases tomorrow, August 9th. Be sure to check it out wherever you stream your streams!