If you’re looking for a spark of inspiration, there is much to like about this latest EP from US metalcore outfit Like Moths To Flames.
The opener, Ameliorate, sets the general tone of epic and tortured, facing up to diseased death and the agonies before and beyond, vocalist Chris Roetter singing: “With all of the walls closing in on me/ How do I get back to somewhere I know/ The silence screams my name … An ever-flowing river of hate runs through my veins and I can’t let go … I claim this hell alone.” Yes, we’ve all had days like that.
A certain formula emerges, heavy riffing and chugging to establish and increase intensity in the build-up, before the big, melodic chorus brings the release either before or after some death growls and the breakdown. It is a modus operandi which echoes recent heavy metal and/or metalcore albums from US bands such as Trivium and Tremonti and Canada’s already much lauded Spiritbox. But there is more to any of those examples than a set-in-stone formula and Pure Like Porcelain proves there is more to Like Moths To Flames. Following up on their 2020 album, No Eternity In Gold, it seems to point the way to a fresh and creative future and suggests their next longer-form release will be well worth hearing.
Track two on the EP, Views From Halfway Down, is not about watching your favourite NFL team from a spot on the 50-yard line. Instead the Pure Like Porcelain title is to the fore as the lyrics ironically emphasise man’s impurities and imperfections. Views From … immediately and propulsively ups the musical ante, featuring more melodies along with significant and welcome moments of relative grace and repose.
The Preservation Of Hate is an odd choice of single – less “sing along to” than “stumble your way through, confused”. It starts out choppily off-kilter and shout-y with a ferocious drum assault before becoming downright weird as those drums seem to be thrown down a few flights of stairs on the way to a discordant, dissonant fade-out. It certainly is different. A flawed but multi-faceted gem? Yes, let’s agree that and move on.
Next up we’re back on track with Gnashing Teeth – an evocative, middle Eastern vibe, a dysfunctional religious theme (“The sound of gnashing my teeth on the cross echoes endlessly …”) and another busy, skins-busting, powerplay drumscape. Closing song Do Not Resuscitate boasts more big choruses as the band again display their considerable playing chops.
All in all, a solid five-track taste of what might be to come from this accomplished and experienced (formed 2010) band. Fans of this kind of thing will be on it like flies on steaming hot dogsh.. er, moths, flames etc. You get the picture.
Pure Like Porcelain by Like Moths To Flames is out now on UNFD
EP Review: Like Moths To Flames – Pure Like Porcelain