Album Review: Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us
Reviewed by Rick Eaglestone
Connecticut’s Fires in the Distance return with their melodic death doom tones for second album Air Not Meant For Us, the first with new drummer Jordan Rippe.
The rainfall begins at the albums start 'Harbringers' is soon accompanied by sweeping guitar parts, huge atmospheric parts which all compliment vocalist Kristian Grimaldi’s thunderous delivery. The piano parts that also appear midway through the track alongside Rippe’s drumming make the album already command the listeners attention for the duration, an extraordinarily strong start indeed.
The piano compositions of Yegor Savonin are once again prominent on follow up track 'Wisdom of Falling Leaves' this is a combination I will never ever tire of - the emotional pull of the softer elements combined with heavy, yet emotion filled vocal and accompanying bass-lines ringing through it’s everything I look for in a death doom track and this highlight track has it in droves.
Halfway point of the album only emphasis all my previous statements and already my gut feeling is that this is going to be an album that am going to certainly revisit in the next eight months of the year and beyond 'Crumbling Pillars of a Tranquil Mind' again has a lot of great aspects but is particularly generous in the solo section.
'Adrift, Beneath the Listless Waves' sees Fires in the Distance incorporating another dynamic, less doomy more in line with a modern metal sound, this instrumental track features guest contributions from Burial in the Sky’s James Tomedi, this is then followed by the familiar flow of despair on 'Psalm of the Merciless' which once again has me in raptures and has me thinking back to November’s Doom 2005’s Colossal The Pale Haunt Departure which is almost the benchmark I have for death doom and frankly the longest this album continues the higher it goes up in my estimation.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end 'Idiopathic Despair' has a great spoken word part about evolution which was is another sting in the bow as it’s the first track of the album to feature it, once again the familiar flow of elements follow on and consistently just like the rest of the album the songs length only project them to next level formidability closing the album perfectly.
The compositions that run alongside the heaviness and emotion have really captivated me through the 51-minute runtime, it is easily an album I would be more than happy to light some candles too, hit repeat and escape in over and over.
