Although billed as a crust band in the PR release that accompanies The Old Lie, America’s Victim of Fire – excellent album cover and Wilfred Owen-quoting title track aside – appear to be more of a straight up, fast-paced death/grind act.
Now that we’ve got the labelling out of the way, what about the music? Well, it’s uniformly excellent, actually. Propelled forward at breakneck speed by Marc‘s drums (probably the crustiest thing here is the way Marc absolutely batters his kit), tracks like The Old Lie and Soldiers Dream fizz along in superb style, with vocalist/guitarist Austin making absolutely no concessions to melody in his vocal assault on the ears. However he makes up for that tunefulness deficit in the six string department with guitar partner Emily, withe the pair indulging in more than a couple harmony leads throughout the album. And just in case there are any doubts about the pair’s validity as a guitar duo, they’ve thrown in a (very good, it has to be said) cover of Iron Maiden‘s Aces High at the close of the album just in case…
Japes aside though, this is a pretty fierce release from a band still establishing themselves on the international scene. Barren Path is probably the most impressive of the originals, possessing enough real piss and vinegar attitude to give more established names a run for their money, and the band manage to keep that level of intensity up through the most of the album, even on slightly more complex material like the excellent Front Towards Enemy. Only on the more progressive Disharmonist do they take an extended breather, which leads me to believe their live sets might be an excellent addition to a calorie-controlled diet, should you need to drop a few pounds…
Great stuff then, and I happily recommend this to fans of heads-down, no-nonsense death metal everywhere!
The Old Lie is out now