Album Review: Victim of Fire - The Old Lie
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Formed in 2016, Denver, Colorado, four-piece, Victim of Fire wasted no time in issuing their debut album, Becoming Ash the very same year, leading to a series of singles, EPs and demos up to the sophomore record, Disembrace in 2022.
A three-track demo last year foreshadowed an imminent third album, which is ready to hit the shelves at the start of August, and continues the band’s uncompromising combination of d-beat crust and classic metal influences.
Taking its title from the Wildred Owen poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, itself a comment on the Roman poet, Horace’s writing that it is sweet and fitting to die for your country – the first half of The Old Lie is given over to tracks with anti-war positions. From the locale of World War 1 in the title track and the other Owen-inspired Soldiers Dream, to the critique of the military-industrial complex and war-mongering politicians on Apocalyptic Inclination and Nightmares of Ceasefire.
Musically the themes of the record are well supported by a combination of blackened barks and classic NWoBHM dual harmonies. It becomes something of a balancing act that Victim of Fire pull off well; The Old lie opens with its title track, delivered with rapid barks and excoriating riffs. Classic metal tropes bleed into the closing stages, as they do on Apocalyptic Inclination.
Wayward Light bolts along at a speedy pace and with a melodic death metal fury, Nightmare of Ceasefire picks up from a soundbite in Apocalyptic… and unpacks it a little further through blackened death, solid low-end gallops and some sharp, stabbing guitars. Soldiers Dream recreates the proximity of the battlefield by having relentless rains of musical shrapnel fall on the heads of the listener, recreating the adrenaline-fuelled pulse of the combatant under fire, before concluding with a melancholic passage of strings and dark atmospherics.
The second half of The Old Lie is a much more introspective collection of songs, but no less abrasive or confrontational. Discordance is one of the previously demo-ed songs – along with Wayward Light and Barren Path – and had already become something of a live favourite with its blackened leanings and classic sound. Barren Path finds Victim of Fire in a melodic death metal mood, polished staccato riffs mean this one is a little more refined than some of The Old Lie’s other songs.
Front Towards Enemy has big drums, great harmonies and a killer classic solo, arriving with an epic sense of grandeur that the mammoth Disharmonist picks up and runs with. Considered by the band to be their magnum opus, Disharmonist, released as a single in 2021, is over seven-minutes of Victim of Fire showing off their collective chops.
Everything that has worked on this record comes together in a single composition: Austin and Emily trade licks and harmonies, Marc’s drums are ably supported by Dustin’s bass and unbridled energy, tempered by switching atmospherics and an unsettling nature, make this one a gem of a tune.
The band cite the likes of In Flames, Dismember, Disfear and Iron Maiden as sources of inspiration and a fleeting knowledge of any of those artists can be heard on The Old Lie; none more so than Maiden, whose guitar harmonies were a driving force for Austin since the age of sixteen.
As a tip of the hat to the Greatest Heavy Metal Band in the World, The Old Lie concludes with their take on Powerslaves’ Aces High, and if you’ve come this far, you’ll be ready for their Victim of Fire-isation of the tune.
A fine album with something to say about the state of the world, using a combination of traditional metal sounds, presented in a modern manner. I enjoyed this.
