OneMetal.com REVIEW:
The Safety Fire – Sections

Formed in 2006, The Safety Fire have steadily been making a name for themselves with their distinctive blend of fleet-fingered instrumental virtuosity, head-spinning compositional complexity and expansive songcraft that manages to find a delicate balance between outright technical brutality and soaring melodicism. This digital-only EP serves as a taster for the band’s upcoming debut full-length, and is as accomplished an introduction to this extraordinarily skilled band’s sound as one could hope for.

Right from the opening moments of the title track, the musical talent possessed by the band members is evident – a flurry of precisely-picked notes come flying at the listener, pummelled into their consciousness forcefully by the inhumanly tight rhythm section. Sean McWeeney’s vocals then enter the fray, at first crooning in a manner reminiscent of Cynic (minus the robot-distortion effect), then switching tack to a hardcore-esque scream. The musical backdrop is no less varied, going from Fear Factory-precise lockstep riffage to a swirling, ambient interlude combining restrained hi-hat work, finger-tapped bass and gentle swells of atmospheric synths. The reprieve doesn’t last too long, however, before we’re back to being bludgeoned with dizzyingly technical riffage, topped off with guest solos by Sikth‘s Pin and Linear Sphere‘s Martin Goulding.

The rest of the EP continues in similar fashion – polyrhythmic, Meshuggah-esque beats meeting technical, Sikth-level fretboard wizardry, all wrapped up with a songwriting sensibility that shows the band knows not to throw everything at the listener all at once, but instead to let a solo shine by settling on a more groove-centric rhythm guitar riff, or to make the more intense passages stand out by contrasting them with a more relaxed, melodic part. See mid-EP instrumental ‘Sululary’ – a minute and a half of gentle, soothing clean guitar and bass work that cleanses the palate quite effectively before the sudden wake-up call that is the initial battery of ‘Spoilage’ – which itself quickly segués into acoustic guitar strumming, Gilmour-esque leads and melodic singing before returning to a more aggressive mode.

On the strength of this EP, it’s hard to imagine that The Safety Fire won’t emerge as one of the brightest stars on the UK contemporary metal scene, and it’s a near-certainty that their debut full-length will be an essential purchase for any fan of ambitious, progressive and technical metal played with obvious passion and abundant ability. Until the album’s release, though, Sections will serve admirably both to introduce the metal fandom to a talented new band and to whet the appetite for that debut album.

The Safety Fire’s MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thesafetyfire

Bottom Line

A hugely impressive blend of technical virtuosity and songwriting nous, Sections is highly recommended for any fan of contemporary progressive/technical metal.