Fall of Efrafa were a post-metal/sludge band from Brighton, England, active from 2005 to 2009. They took their name from the totalitarian warren in Watership Down and references to the book are rife throughout their lyrics and artwork. Other recurring themes are atheism and animal rights.
Amongst their musical influences they count Neurosis, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Agalloch, His Hero Is Gone, and Buried Inside.
Related Acts:
- Light Bearer: band formed by singer Alex Bradshaw taking inspiration from His Dark Materials in the same way Fall of Efrafa took from Watership Down.
Members:
- Neil Kingsbury - guitar
- Michael Douglas - bass
- George Miles - drums
- Steven McCusker - guitar
- Alex Bradshaw - vocals & lyrics
Studio albums:
- Owsla
- Elil
- Inle
- Tharn (EP)
This band provides examples of:
- Anachronic Order: The storyline of their albums goes backwards, with Owsla being chronologically the last installment.
- Author Tract: Alex Bradshaw is not subtle at all about his atheistic, environmentalist, anarchist viewpoints in the band's lyrics. The official lyric sheets for "Pity the Weak" and "A Soul to Bare" even contain short essays from him explaining his views on animal rights and veganism.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: They're kinda big on these themes.
- Boléro Effect: Many songs do this, given the rampant Godspeed influence. "Beyond the Veil" is probably the best.
- Bolivian Army Ending: "The Fall of Efrafa" serves as this for their storyline, with the rabbits mounting one last doomed charge against the humans.
- Book Ends: Inle ends with a reprise of the cello melody that opened up Owsla.
- Concept Album: Every single album. They follow their own loose storyline, but occasionally write about events in the book, like the destruction of Sandleford Warren in "For El Ahrairah to Cry" and Hazel's death and subsequent joining of the Black Rabbit's owsla in "Fu Inle."
- Crystal Dragon Jesus/ Dark Messiah: El Ahrairah, unlike the book, presents himself as the former but actually is the latter.
- Darker and Edgier: The storyline in their albums is this to Watership Down, dealing with a rabbit populace violently rebelling against a religious dictatorship, coupled with the additional threat of human encroachment.
- Epic Rocking: Their songs typically last some 15 minutes at least.
- Eternal Recurrence: Seemingly a big theme. That Other Wiki explains:"The trilogy is cyclical and runs in reverse; with Owsla representing the climax and eventual rebirth of the story. This is signified by a passage of cello which Bookends the trilogy - representing the eventual rise and fall of empires and our inability to learn from past mistakes."
- Fluffy the Terrible: They're a pretty hardcore band.... with a bunny theme.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Humanity, referred to as efrafa.
- Green Aesop: They're big on environmentalism and veganism.
- Harsh Vocals: All of their vocals are like this.
- Heavy Mithril: To the extent that they qualify as a metal band, they are this.
- Humans Are Bastards: A recurring theme, most prominent on Owsla.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: "For El Ahrairah to Cry" deals with the destruction of the Sandleford Warren by humans.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The titles of their albums are all in the lapine language created by Richard Adams.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: Due to the Harsh Vocals and the fact that they're placed somewhat back in the mix.
- Leave the Camera Running: "The Fall of Efrafa" ends with about 5 minutes of rain sound effects.
- Longest Song Goes Last: Each of their albums does this; in order they have "The Fall of Efrafa" (14:52), "For El Ahrairah to Cry" (22:06), and "The Warren of Snares" (17:26).
- Loudness War: Largely averted. Elil is a borderline case at DR7, but the other two albums, strangely, are complete aversions, both being DR9. No track on any of these albums has a score less than DR7. The one release that mostly plays it straight is Tharn, which is an appalling DR3, but even it has some pretty good dynamics for its first six minutes or so.
- Path of Inspiration: The rabbits' religion of Frith is perceived by the band as such and also seen as parallel of Christianity in the real world.
- Purple Prose: Their lyrics are pretty wordy. Special mention goes to the spoken monologue in "Simulacrum".
- Rearrange the Song: They rearranged "Dominion Theology" and added extra instrumentation and released it as the song "Tharn."
- Religion Rant Song: A pretty big chunk of their lyrics, along with more general social commentary.
- Siamese Twin Songs: "Fu Inle" with "Republic of Heaven", "Pity the Weak" with "A Soul to Bare."
- The Song Before the Storm: "Lament" on Owsla, which precedes "Last But Not Least" and "The Fall of Efrafa", and "The Sky Suspended" on Inle, which precedes "The Warren of Snares". Both are short instrumentals with no percussion.
- Spoken Word in Music: Including reading parts of Watership Down and speeches by Richard Dawkins.
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Tharn."
- Title Drop: A rare band title drop in "Last But Not Least"."I WILL WITNESS! WITNESS! THE FALL OF... EFRAFAAAAAA!"
