The Safety Fire
Grind the Ocean

This band has elected to have a fish as a cover artwork for their debut album, that does raise some questions, don’t you think? What’s with the fish? What’s with the eye? Is it about my eye? sort of... Who framed Roger Rabbit? What the hell? What is life? Who the devil are you? those are some of the questions of course along with: how big was the thing that exploded into the big bang and created the universe? Those are questions most of us ask ourselves over this fishy cover art. Speaking of fishy, the advance single Huge Hammers also has a fish on the cover art, a shark which seems a bit strange for a hammer titled single. They are a british band The Safety Fire and they have been sharing the stage with many bands according to the press information about this album and according to the same press information they are renowned for they prowess as a live band which is all good but nothing that really matters when it comes to the quality of their debut album. So, is that debut something great or is there something fishy going on?

Powerful, heavy, complex, aggressive, mellow, diverse, that are some words that can be said in description of this album. Complex melodic structures based in an extreme foundation with a vocalist both screaming out text lines and singing them, he is a decent vocalist not a brilliant one but decent. The sound and production of this album is very good and powerful, the music is as I said complex and is one that requires time to get to know. The good sound and maturity behind this album makes it feel very much like a quality product when looking at the soundscape and the likes. Just when looking at how well they have done in terms of the sound it is hard to tell that it is a debut album. The album can also be said to quite diverse over the nine tracks and about 47 minutes it plays for.

The album starts with the advance single called Huge Hammers which is a track that quite well summarises the album, it is complex, diverse, heavy, calmer and all of which this album is and if you like this song, you will like the album and the other way around. I think that it is a very good album, the songs have great character, they are complex but still quite catchy and the album shows some great energy as well and I think it is in this music possible to why they are considered a good live band, this music will go very well on the stage. I think Huge Hammers along with DMP (FDP) are the two top tracks on the album, and I think the best thing about the album as a whole are these little nice tactile little melodies that creates this really cool complex feel that still is melodic and catchy. It is an album that grabs me as a listener.

If there is a weak point, it is to be found in the vocals that are not brilliant. Still along with the other elements of the music the vocals harmonise quite well and despite the singer’s lack of skill it works really well in all of the songs and it is a pleasure to listen to this album. I often times when listening to this album finds it quite remarkable that they are doing their album debut with this album, it is so complex but yet always held in check and they haven’t even fallen for the CD curse to make the albums too long, 47 minutes is perfect for this album it ends at the right moment.

So, a heavy, powerful progressive metal album that is really good on more or less every level, an album I can recommend both for the great music that is oceanically good and for the fishy cover artwork that isn’t really that great but it is still brilliant. I wonder if it is available as a poster. Nothing fishy going on here, just great music.