Fires Of Tartarus - Fires Of Tartarus

Self Released 2012

 

1.Adsum 2.Yawning Void Of Chaos 3.Vindictive Miscreation

4.Fragments 5.Macrocosm

 

As ‘Adsum’ slowly fades into life there’s an instant ‘Slowly We Rot’ feel to the short atmospheric intro but then as the songs blasts into full life all such comparisons disappear. Heavy as fuck death metal yes, but not the brand death metal forefathers Obituary play. On offer is a heavy, Swedish inspired death metal barrage. A lot of the guitar work having an extremely melodic and catchy sound. The vocals match the riffing perfectly, screamed and scathing vocals being preferred, which are backed up every now and again by guttural and growled vocal work. All in all a great combination which works well. ‘Yawning Void Of Chaos’ opens up as furiously as its predecessor, the Swedish influence once again heavily on show, ‘The Crown’ springing to mind in the opening few riffs. As the song gathers pace, so blast beats are introduced, used sparingly but a welcome addition to the band’s sound. The tracks then drops right off (pace wise) into melodic, but heavy death metal guitar work. All old school inspired, but with a production that gives it a very modern edge. The song then enters into extremely well played and catchy riffing and with the introduction of a guitar solo, the old school element never far away from the bands sounds and song structures.

As ‘Vindictive Miscreation’ begins, the band has stripped things to a bare minimum, a far simpler approach undertaken. Slightly different to the previous songs, but not sounding particularly out of place. As the songs builds, the re-introduction of blast beats and the Swedish inspired death metal returns the song to more familiar territory. The band definitely sounding more devastating with this influence on show. The pace begins to slow right down and this is where another of the bands influences shows through again, the song sat firmly in the old school but never sounding dated or uninspired. ‘Fragments’ picks the pace up once again, a track to really rip your face off. It’s a song that does what it is meant to, be a heavy death metal song, written to pummel your senses, which is gladly succeeds in doing, the faster blasting sections towards the end of the track particularly effective.  Ending this debut e.p. is ‘Macrocosm’ which leads on where the previous track left off, another pummelling, straight to the point death metal assault. Once again, a heavy Swedish death metal inspired framework used to craft quite a brutal closing track. The guitars sounding really heavy in this closer and yet again blast beats introduced to end the track on. F.O.T appear to tick all the boxes from an extreme metal point of view and have produced a real belter of a debut e.p. The production on the guitars is great, a real organic heaviness to them. One niggling point is the kick drum sound, way too ‘clicky’ for music that is old school in essence, albeit with a modern twist. A more natural sound would have been more appealing – but it’s only a small gripe. Overall there are no complaints at all; it’s well written, catchy, heavy and monstrous at times, what more do you need from death metal? Definitely worth checking out.

 

7.5 Out of 10