A North Wales and Merseyside Duo Mixes Hard Rock, Electronica, Sludge and Melodic Metal
Scream starts with pulsating synths, then a grinding, heavy bass tone lands on top of them. All of that noise comes from two people. FYDStar, the North Wales and Merseyside duo of Gareth Symons and Simon Potter, released the single on 22 August 2020, with guest vocals from Kate Proudlove.
FYDStar’s music sits in the playlist below, and the duo’s run of coverage lives on the FYDStar profile. Scream came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Give the track a listen, then read on for the story behind it.
Royal Blood, Torche and Floor Built the Bass-Heavy Sludge Pop Wave Behind FYDStar and Scream
Two strands of heavy music meet on this record. The first is the two-piece. Royal Blood formed in Worthing in 2011. Mike Kerr runs his bass through effects pedals and amps, so it sounds like a guitar and a bass at once. With Ben Thatcher on drums, their 2014 debut showed how big two players could sound.
The second strand is sludge with a melody on top. Floor started in Miami in 1992 as a stoner and sludge metal band. In 2004 its founder, Steve Brooks, formed Torche. The new Miami band kept the weight and leaned harder on the hooks across five studio albums.
FYDStar sit where those two lines cross. Their own Facebook page calls the project two-piece heavy sludge pop that occasionally has something to do with space. When Scream came out, Eat This Rock described the sound as cosmic metal, a genre-bending mix that takes in Muse and Torche. The duo’s own description goes further still: Korn listening to ABBA at a joint party thrown by Muse and Royal Blood.
In other words, the riffs are heavy, but the tunes are built to stick. That balance between hard rock, electronica, sludge and melodic metal is the whole point of the track.
Gareth Symons and Simon Potter Fit Synths, Bass and Drums Around a Doomed Cosmic Romance
FYDStar began as Gareth Symons on his own. In that early form, his first song got local BBC radio play in Wales and Merseyside. It also won a play-off on the Brutally Honest Review feature run by The Rise Guys, an internet radio show in North Carolina. By 2020 the project was a duo. Symons handles vocals, bass, songwriting and production, while Simon Potter, formerly of Delta Sly Honey, plays drums. Their previous single, Bite the Rope, came out in April 2020.
Scream is tracked from a small kit. First, the synths set the scene. Then the bass comes in grinding and heavy, while the drums underneath keep a measured pace. The synth notes drift in and out, and near the end the pace finally drops so the song can wind down. The whole thing runs a little over three minutes.
The story is the real hook. Symons sings as a Planet-Locked protagonist with a big mouth and no sense of when to stop. Kate Proudlove, a vocal coach, plays the soon-to-be Offworld object of his affection. With every line, the character grows more irritated. Meanwhile, The Other Side Reviews heard a grounded voice from Symons set against an airier one from Proudlove. Even a last-minute burst of cosmic poetry fails, and he does not get the girl.
From the RockRevival.News Curator Team: “Giving the love interest a voice of her own is what makes Scream work. Kate Proudlove’s lines turn the joke back on the narrator, so the song ends up funnier and heavier at the same time.”
Where to Go After Scream, From Royal Blood and Muse to the FYDStar Album Black Hole Down
If Scream clicks, the adjacent acts are easy to find. Royal Blood show what a bass and drums pair can do at full volume, and Torche bring the same weight with bigger hooks. For space-rock scale, go back to Muse, the Teignmouth band formed in 1994. Fans of Korn will recognise the low-tuned stomp, while the ABBA side shows up in how hard the chorus melody works.
FYDStar kept going after this single. Sweetness followed in March 2021 and Hacked In in December 2021. Then, in July 2023, FYDStar released Black Hole Down, a seven-track album. For now, the duo’s own pages say FYDStar are having a nap. They point fans to City And The Stars instead, a solo side project with a four-track EP out since November 2024.
That makes Scream a good place to start the catalogue, not the end of it. The track is short, loud and built for repeat plays, and the video above tells the same story in about three minutes.
Scream is also on Apple Music. Follow FYDStar across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
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