THE SAFETY FIRE — Mouth Of Swords (review)

THE SAFETY FIRE — Mouth Of Swords album cover Album · 2013 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Kev Rowland
It is always refreshing to come across bands that refuse to conform to any particular musical genre, and create their own path. Such is the case with British outfit Mouth of Swords, for whom the term progressive metal is really the only one that fits, not because they sound like what many people may view of as a prog metal act, but rather that they obviously have never read the rulebook, let alone ignored it. There are huge elements of djent and mathcore in what they are doing, and I already had Protest The Hero down as an obvious influence long before I realised that they had actually toured together. The Safety Fire draw from a large pool of influences, from bands they’ve always listened to such as Deftones, Tool and Alice In Chains to former tourmates such as Between The Buried And Me and Gojira among others.

This is brutal staccato music that is always twisting and moving in new directions, but always with incredible intensity. It is this over the top passion that almost knocks the listener back, such is the anger and directness of the music. It is as if they have decided to capture the emotion of the most over the top hardcore band they could find, and have then created complex and bewildering time signatures and riffs. Loud and raw, the note density is immense, and the tour with PTH must have been just incredible (please can both these bands come to New Zealand? Pretty please??).

This is never music that can be played in the background as it is too much in your face and in your ears. This is music that refuses to be ignored, and will crunch into your brain even as you are trying in brain to follow the musical structure. Sean McWeeney manages to keep his vocal melodies far simpler than what is going on beneath him, and this combined with the intensity provides a compelling musical statement. Songwriter Dez says “Being called a progressive band encapsulates the fact that we don’t do one thing. We think about prog in the experimental sense. We connect more with bands like Mastodon than Dream Theater, so that's how we relate to the word ‘progressive’ with our music.” Progressive, metallic, intense. www.insideoutmusic.com

Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
Kingcrimsonprog wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I've got tickets to see them with Protest The Hero, Intervals and Tesseract all on one bill in February in England. Maybe that tour will go to New Zealand.

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Antibeauty Hardcore Punk
SNOWING IN PERU
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mana Earth Hardcore Punk
SNOWING IN PERU
Buy this album from MMA partners
Intimate Isolation Hardcore Punk
GOOD FALL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Dark Future Sludge Metal
PAIN CHEMISTRY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Violent Delights Hardcore Punk
GALLEONS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Galleons - Electric Emotions
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
Galleons - Elsewhere (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
Galleons - Neon Dreams (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
Galleons - I Travel East As Fievel Goes West Pt. 1 - Official Lyric Video
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
FREEHOWLING - SCARS FT. AARON MATTS (TEN56.) [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
FREEHOWLING
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed