The Quill
Born From Fire

The Quill is back is how the press release for this album is started, the new album Born From Fire follows the 2013 release Tiger Blood. They have returned to their “classic” line-up from their perhaps most popular era. I haven’t really followed the band during the years but I really liked their previous album Tiger Blood and I have to say that this one is a step backwards and it is not only because Magnus Ekwall is back and there are back to their line-up of the past but also because this album is not as good as Tiger Blood.

Their music is a nod back to the seventies but with a fresh feel of modernity, it was perhaps better made on Tiger Blood but it is still a good balance. The sound is strong and their powerful stoner rock music is quite appealing and given we are given a dozen tracks with good variation over them. The vocals are neither better nor worse than the vocals on Tiger Blood, the album I use to compare this album with. The overall feel is that they have taken a step back, this album feels a bit less creative and less modern than Tiger Blood and it is certainly not as good as their 2013 effort. Perhaps we could claim that this album has a little bit less bite.

It starts brilliantly but then they sort of end up with good but less exciting songs. The band claim that they picked up where they left of over ten years ago, so it is a ten year-old album recorded now? They also claim that in the first track they wrote; Set Free Black Crow they managed to squeeze in everything about The Quill in one track – and I thought that was a very bland track, not bad but one of the least interesting tracks on the album. I wouldn’t say that it is an album that is as fiery as it looks, it is good but they have done better and this year has several better albums on offer.

Fans will be ecstatic about them reforming their “classic” line-up and those fans will probably not be disappointed as the album is quite good. Still, I think the predecessor Tiger Blood was a lot better than this one, this is a more cautious, a solid and good but fairly unexciting album.

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