The Fire and the Fury
Firstly, apologies for the delay, I was really ill and then I was working so I am now playing catch up on some of the years releases that I would have tackled earlier.
With ‘Chains Of Agony’ being part of my necessary lockdown soundtrack, I was really excited to see this float gently into my inbox. Finding our way to normality, however that may look now, we all have ‘A New Responsibility’ which opens the show here, with the Alvarez brothers in fine fettle, the familial energy intrinsically bonded with the seismic drumming from Tito and intuitive growlsome noises from Danny Leal. The ringleaders of groovy, metal grinding machinery that lashes your insides akin to a raging thunderstorm and with a rabid intensity Danny howls at the moon in ‘Shapeshifter’ inhabiting all the makings of a fiendish pit.
‘Snake Eyes’ includes the instructive statement ‘be the light and take back your life’ something that the pandemic has given some of us an opportunity to do. The scorching assault of ‘Thunderheart’ offers another way forward in proclaiming ‘no limitations, only salvation’ which reminds me of Dolores O’Riordan – RIP ‘salvation, salvation, salvation is free’.
Working my way through this album, the message of fighting your fears, not holding back anymore, and using your energy for the benefit of your own sanity, these are the topics up for discussion. Find some ‘Clarity’ when you ‘destroy what keeps destroying you’ and take comfort in the strategically placed riffs, breakdowns, and total shakedown of our collective minds; the soundtrack to prevent us from becoming soulless, bimbling carcasses, that have been accepting gratefully the dregs of the coffee cup. Lose yourself for a moment in ‘Sweet Serenity’ a brief yet beautiful interchange, holding all our anger and fear in its gentle embrace. The very last line on this record is exquisite; the anticipation that we all hold within us the key to change, and consequently the assurance of a better tomorrow. It is ‘the gift in you that could change it all’.
So, sit back folks and hear this tale, once upon a burning body, when the Texas money was bloody….
Azra Pathan
Upon A Burning Body – Fury out now via Seek & Strike