Fires In The Distance - Circadian Promise
Way back in lockdown of 2020, we reviewed Echoes from Deep November, the debut from Connecticut’s Fires in the Distance and we glowed at its striking potential and weeping melodious doom. That nascent promise was cemented within a couple of years by its impressive and mature follow-up, Air Not Meant for Us (2023). Circadian Promise segues easily into FITD’s previous work and the album opener, Of Radiance and Levitation, is a truly sweeping piece of emotionally charged, majestic gothic metal. Stirring in terms of both rousing melody and soaring, infectious hooks it once again demonstrates this band’s aptitude for packaging up sumptuous, clever arrangements and interplays all delivered with emotional punch.
There is a new vocalist, Brendan Hayter, who brings a new dynamic by introducing stentorian cleans which is a first for this band. Alternatively, his death metal vocals, are raspier, choked and almost more black metal-esque in places and that interchange aligns with the record’s emotional alternator from shimmery dreaminess to driving death doom heft.
Circadian Promise does not lack ambition and much is crammed into each track. The standard of musicianship and production delivery are, as ever, exquisitely handled. It’s a brooding and sprawling collection of reflective, crunchy melody and sad fury augmented with tinkering keys, plaintive harmonies and ascendant solos. There is a spoken word from the late plummy mouthed English eccentric intellectual, Alan Watts, in By This Time Tomorrow and the record is dappled with wistful hushed passages and pensive bridges.
Each song is, however, up to minutes’ run-time so that occasionally teeters on over-staying. It is a meditative, ponderous record that requires committed listening to absorb its full depth and palette. Admittedly, this type of gothic death doom is not an immediate sub-genre but instead leans into the epic. In any case, FITD do have a broad-based spectrum of stylistic delivery that keeps their melodrama highly compelling.
Check out the bandcamp here: https://firesinthedistance.bandcamp.com/music