FireScent – Passengers (2012)

FIRESCENT comes from Germany and was formed out of the dissolved MINDCRIME. They describe themselves as influenced by the Scandinavian Metal, namely KATATONIA, and come from a premise of melancholy and darkness. They also rather ambitiously claim to be “hardly comparable to anything being heard so far”, and whilst I concede that the spirit of creativity is definitely there and that they possess their own unique “flavour” I cannot really say that their sound is as original and groundbreaking as the claim would have you believe but the music is of a truly good quality regardless of that boastfulness. The lyrical content deals with some difficult times and resulting emotions and it seems that they strive for their closure and resolution. Also the Scandinavian influence reaches further out to England – Halifax and Liverpool respectively, as you can also feel references to PARADISE LOST and ANATHEMA there, representatively ‘Moving Skywards’ shows the doom and melodic death metal leanings quite well. NEVERMORE may be your next point of reference.

The progressive and even more rock-sounding parts are quite unobtrusive and the weaving of the different trends and its elements is commendable. ‘Convenience Mark’ is one of the best tracks, also a fusion of styles, the changes of tempo and shading of emotions by them is quite striking, the song is strong and even beautiful. ‘Concrete Shores’ has quite an imaginative beginning with harmonica, birds and ship sounds – which sounds clichéd but is well done here – and especially in a way that brings an atmosphere of foreboding broken up by a more breakneck speed guitars & drums and probably more of its nod to thrash metal. ‘Passengers Theme’ is a rather beautiful closing track; the vocals are at their most outstanding here as well as the guitar work in slower parts, thinly shadowed by strings with some solos coming in the mid-tempo and within the faster tempo there is even a small bit of a feel of epic metal to appreciate.  The sound of the waves fades out the album out rather nicely. I felt that the sequencing of songs should have been done better with a bit of pruning to be done, but still, it’s a truly good album with some great moments on it from a band that should be signed already, very promising.

01. Ascension theory (4:59)
02. Silent Solitude (5:59)
03. Moving Skywards (6:24)
04. Convenience Mark (5:15)
05. Concrete Shores (6:23)
06. In Response To Light (5:24)
07. Revealing Fire (4:48)
08. Astonishing Synopsis (4:10)
09. Passengers Theme (6:00)
10. Transmission Lane (Bonus Track) (3:37)

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