Fuelled By Fire – Spread The Fire
They formed in 2002, they're signed to Metal Blade records, they make vintage old school thrash metal and they have self released their debut album 'Spread The Fire'
With influences ranging from the likes of Metallica, Slayer and Exodus, these west coast thrashers have made a definitive name for themselves within this underground revival. With shredding riffs and high speed soloing, their guitars are at the forefront of this bands sound, especially in the opening track, which is an entire two minutes, and fifteen seconds of pure guitar work.
Vocally it's pretty much as expected, moderately clean and lacking any kind of melody or intonation really. But with a band like this, vocals are not the most important factor, they're more like something added on at the end to make the songs sound more complete. It's the guitars that are the definite driving force in this outfit and this is what the listeners want to hear. There's also a very consistent speed throughout and this provides the energy that keeps this album going. In fact the only time you get a change of pace is the very first few seconds on track 6 'Massive Execution'. Other than this 'Spread The Fire' is nine plus two bonus tracks of pure untouched straight up thrash.
It is perhaps slightly one-dimensional if you're looking for more, but I think the point is that it's supposed to be one-dimensional. It's not supposed to break boundaries, cross genres or inspire. It's supposed to be what it is, not messed with, not added to and not altered in any way. They obviously love this sound and that is reflected in the tracks 'Thrash Is Back' and 'Metal Forever'
Basically 'Fuelled By Fire' is the perfect answer for anyone who loves the thrash sound of the 80's. Anyone that loves fast, intricate shredding, a hell of a lot of attitude and early Metallica records will probably love this band.
We all know there is nothing new here, but that's the idea. 'Fuelled By Fire' is creating a sound that people know, love and respect. It's a sound that has moved on and developed over time. For those of you that have moved on and developed too you might still appreciate what they're doing, and for those of you who haven't and I mean you're still wearing the tight denims and leather jackets, you will absolutely love this record.