Customer Reviews

Fear of God

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the most powerful CD's I have ever listened to. The music is deep, heavy and textured, one could easily slip thru a crack and get lost. And then there is Dawn's voice. From the opening spoken words to the frenzied exodus of Drift it is obvious who the star is here. Dawn's tortured soul is bared as she lashes out at a world that she is not long for.
The music is reminsicent of early Fates Warning/Mercyful Fate only with a heavier double bass and guitar crunch at times. The band is tight, and they weave a spike filled web that Dawn cloaks her vocals in. Raspy, haunting and at times screamed like a death knell, paradoxically, at other times they are spoken, whispered and almost breathed. The lyrics are deep, dark and wonderful. Simple lines have excess meaning when Dawn speaks them. This album is not simply a bunch of songs but more of an experience.
From personal knowledge I know that on the tour of this album she started having violent episodes and a couple of years later literally drank herself to death. This CD was powerful before, but seeing and feeling the underlying madness inherit within it makes it an almost surreal experience. This is NOT an act, this is raw emotion and mental anguish at it's finest.
I implore everyone out there who desires to really experience their music instead of just listening to it, to track this CD down and feel the power it contains. My personal favorites are tracks #3-Emily and #9-Drift.

This is an incredible album. Dawn Crosby died of alcoholism, I believe in 1996. Anyway, my first exposure to this was an intense video "Betrayed," one of the most intense tracks off this album. The overlay of voices throughout the album makes it sound as though a wall of hanting female banshees laid down the vocals. Far superior to the harsher, stripped down follow-up, this evokes early Danzig and early King Diamond, yet is a wonder all to its own. Very under-exposed and under the radar... get it if you can.

I haven't heard this album in a long while. I bought it on cassette years ago when it first came out; it was one of those random, impulsive, spontaneous "Well, this looks interesting, I think I'll pick it up," purchases; you know, the type where you're not concerned about the possibility of wasting the money on (I've done it many times, and you win some, lose some). I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and needless to say it was the furthest thing from being a waste of my money. I was in love with this from the start and I couldn't stop listening.

Eventually, a little over a year later, I wondered what happened to them because nothing new had come out and I didn't know if they were still together. I had sent a letter to Dawn Crosby c/o Warner Bros. Records (address that was listed inside the "Within the Veil" tape sleeve), and over a year went by with no response. To be honest, I had forgotten all about it.

So I was 17 at the time, and I receive a small package in the mail from a mailer named F.O.G. from Maryland with a note on it that said "Do you still care?" and initialed D.C. - I didn't put two and two together at the time, and this sat on top of my dresser in my room for about a month or so. I finally opened it up, and what was inside was a photocopy of a demo tape sleeve that Fear of God had recorded between "Within the Veil" and "Toxic Voodoo", after the line-up changes. I just about dropped over, and if my foot could have reached my own rear end, I would have kicked it for not opening this package sooner. Best part about it was that she included a phone number to reach her.

So I gave her a call and I think I woke her up (I'm in PA, she was in MD at the time, but it was like 1:00 PM). I told her who I was, and it was as if she knew me right away. We talked about shows and the line-up changes in the band, and the possibility to get to a show in Philly to meet up with her. Unfortunately, this never happened. We spoke on the phone a few more times after that; she sounded to be troubled, though I didn't really feel it was my place to question it; it really wasn't any of my business.

I then lost touch with her, and about six months later I did a random search on the internet and started finding write-ups about her death. I was speechless, upset, torn, and again, I could have kicked myself for not getting to one of the shows that we talked about on the phone. Now my chance to hang with her was gone.

This is easily one of the most unforgettable recordings I've ever heard. Dawn's vocals are beautiful, yet damning at the same time. Very serene at times, while still feeling tortured, maimed, confused, scarred. No doubt one the most emotionally raw performances I can think possible. I HIGHLY recommend this to any "dungeon metal" or "doom metal" fan out there. A true rare gem within the genre not only at the time it came out, but even until now; I've never heard anything else quite like this, and I doubt I ever will.

R.I.P. Dawn Crosby...

The music scene is so cluttered nowadays. When a band gets big, the record companies flood the market with a zillion other bands that sound like them. The end result is that there are really good bands that get overlooked due to this flooded market.
FEAR OF GOD`s " Within the Veil" should have been a phenomenon. I say this because this is a truely unique and impassioned album. And it has a factor I just love in an album; nothing else sounds like it. However there are elements that would appeal to every style of metal. The late Dawn Crosby gave an unforgettable performance on this album. From the spoken intro of the first song " All That Remains" to the end of the final cut; "Drift".
The music is heavy. The band sounded ... well I call it gothic thrash. And well played at that. This album will appeal to fans of slayer, overkill, celtic frost, lamb of god, and rob zombie. This album is really exceptional and if you ever get the chance to hear it, you`ll agree. Its passioned and chaotic but never becomes just noise. Pick it up if you stumble across it. However, stay away from the followup, " toxic voodoo". The band had too many lineup changes and F.O.G.s sound suffered because of it.

But Toxic Voodoo failed. I bought this album on a whim back in 91. Got it on cassette actually. It blew me away from the start. Everything about this album is amazing. The music is dark and heavy. The vocals are outstanding. I still listen to the album to this very day. I'd recommend it, but it's out of print. If you can get your hands on a copy, by all means...

This music is very overlooked and left to the book on the shelve that needs to be heard again and again. Dark and absolute mind blowing if you let yourself ask whats is this. Great heaviness and a musical abstract destruction and should be one I never forgot. I remember it as music no one didn't want and was cheap to buy and now is in the history of metal greats,if they could take heed of a true female artist and the band that wrote it. R.I.P. Dawn and long live metal creativity.

I don't have the kind of encyclopedic knowledge of music that would allow me to say this release is "unique", but it's certainly unique in my metal collection. Unfortunately I didn't find this gem until reading about it on the internet 10 years later. I knew something of Dawn Crosby from my high school metal days, so I was curious. I watched eBay for a few months and was lucky enough to land a copy for $35. WORTH EVERY PENNY! This has been one of my favorites ever since. The music is fairly simple, but it's good. What makes it special are the vocals and atmosphere, which are very powerful. The combination is magical. Crosby really makes these songs scream with agony, and the instrumental music is well done and moves the songs along well. I don't know where they got the idea from, but this album is absolutely inspired. Crank it loud and it can be breathtaking.

I really wish I had found this 10 years earlier. Ironically, in the 1980's Dawn Crosby was in a completely different style of band called Detente. On one of the "Best of Metal Blade" compilations they had a great song called "Holy War", which was a fairly typical mid-1980's style metal song. It was among my favorite songs in high school.

The other reviews of this record are completely on the mark. I had the good fortune to meet Dawn on this tour. She was warm, beautiful and fightening. The album is the same. If you have a heart, the last four songs on this record will kill you.

After wondering where I could get this album on and off again for a couple of years, I finally scored a near-perfect used copy (thanks amazon!). I used to spin this virtually unknown album nonstop when it first hit the scene over 15 years ago, and it's apparent to me now that this band was far ahead of it's time.....Fear of God really hit on an interesting and unique sound with this album, which is so disturbing, compelling and intense that it really should belong in the hands of any music collector who enjoys dark/metal/gothic/doom music.

This is sort of the prototype of much of the "dark-emo-goth" styles of heavy music that would flood the market years later, but with a much more cinematic, chilling and artistic flair. Centered on the vocals of the late Dawn Crosby, whose ability to screech and growl like some sort of banshee from the abyss in one breath, yet moan in soft, quasi-erotic vulnerability the next makes this album so epic and grandiose. The grim, dark and heavy sludge riffs of guitarist Michael Carlino are multi-layered and thick; with killer Sabbath-esque chord progressions and torturous soloing over droning, somber acoustic passages.

A nightmarish, seemingly autobiographical tale of despair and delusion made even more poignant with the subsequent death of the singer/lyricist from depression and acute alcoholism....rare and monumental. Not too cheery, though....