An album of multiple personalities
I'm going to put it out there from the start; this album is a bit of a mess. From beginning to end it feels like The Fire and I don't quite know what their identity is and so have tried their hand at a whole host of rock based styles. Now, I'm not denying that mixing it up can work, just as long as the album feels like it belongs wholly to the group, which in this case it doesn't. Unfortunately "Stampede Finale" feels just like its name. From track one "Revenge of the Bloody Angel" it's a stampede of bass and drums racing towards the album's finale "Dark in the Shade".
Throughout the 11 tracks on offer from this Scottish duo you can hear a range of influences from Queens of the Stone Age on 'The Beginning' to Foo Fighters on 'Left and Right' and even going to The Killers on 'Just Face It'. Track four 'Control' even has pop punk instrumentals reminiscent of The Offspring. All of these make for some interesting tracks, all with great potential but they are waylaid by some questionable decisions over vocal stylings and lyrics. Going back to 'Control' they have overlaid the instrumentals with what feel like wannabe metal vocals and the track closes with what feels like the beginning of a new, experiemental/indie song.
These are some pretty powerful rock tunes and do have great potential. The highlight for me being the really excellent, full on, thrash out rock and roll opening of 'Left and Right'. But, they can't quite sustain the potential all the way through. That particular track ends on a total whimper after being so driven towards being classed a great anthemic song. The inclusion of swear words in the lyrics and of course notably 'Fuck the Cliché' try and give this album a rebel attitude. Unfortunately it leaves the listener feeling that The Fire and I are the good boys trying to fit in with the cool kids, rather than being the bad boys of rock.
Maybe it's a unique styling that I just don't get but for me the multiple personalities of this album don't mesh well together. I don't get a sense of who The Fire and I are from this release and as such am not leave feeling any sort of connection to them. This is an album of stylistic mash-ups that ultimately and unfortunately just clash.