The Fire The FloodMan what a horrible name, and I'm usually not the one to point out such a thing but holy shit did they drop the ball with this one. Well anyway, these duders are from Charlotte, North Carolina which has given birth to some awesome bands. They play the whole math hardcore/metalcore thing along the lines of Botch, Coalesce and Norma Jean (blah!). The band hasn't been around all that long, they played their first show on Halloween 05' and didn't even release their first demo till 2006, so it's pretty crazy that in two years that have already released a full length that has the backing of a legitimate promotional company, have even been hailed in Wonka Vision as "passionate hardcore", which I don't necessarily agree with, and have already gone through 10 member changes.
In total there are 13 songs of surprisingly short metalcore that is ever so slightly tinged by a rocked out southern feel, if that even makes sense. It's crazy, most of the songs are around the 1:30 mark, so I appreciate the no nonsense approach that the band takes to its song writing. This isn't even close to being as good as the bands these guys are trying to emulate (except Norma Jean)but it isn't horrible either.
The lyrics are about how society lies to us in every medium to keep us under their spell. We are nothing but cogs in a machine and to reverse this, we as citizens and human beings must seek truth. The song that symbolizes this the most is the song, "The Wolf Inside of Me":
"Let the truth become freedom in your eyes. Fellow truth seekers open you minds. See this world for the fake that it is. Think before you speak because words are only words. When you speak from a mouth with a liars tongue. Come be free. Live life. Open your eyes. Come be free. Live life. Open your mind. Let this truth become freedom in your eyes."
The recording which was done Jamie King, who has recently worked with Between The Buried And Me, obviously sounds good. The overall tone of the album is slightly "dirty" which is mostly due to the tone of the guitars. The bass tone is present enough to be heard rumbling beneath the guitars and in between the drums. The drum tone is kind of weird though, it's got a slight reverb on it that sounds weird to my ears.
The layout is very "artsy" which is to be expected with this sort of band. And yes, that's meant to be a compliment. The front cover has an eerie vibe with darkened figures hidden in the background, these guys must be the "truthseekers". The booklet is printed on gloss and has 6 pages. On every flip of the page, there are 2-3 songs worth of lyrics with a crazy contrasted background with all kinds of shit going on. In the middle of the booklet is a weird dual page picture of six guys in suits and on bikes with their faces blacked out, I suppose these are again the "truthseekers".
Rating: 4/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: And It Grows Like Weeds and Mudswampers
Synopsis: This isn't the best album from this type of genre but I've heard far worse attempts so check out three songs from this album at the bands Myspace to see for yourself.