FIRE IN THE HEAD - Forgive With Flame

This is the debut release for Fire In The Head, a project of Michael Page, who apparently has done some live work with the infamous Slogun. This is a 10 song CDR limited to 100 copies of abrasive Power Electronics. Roaring noise and feedback combine with sparse distorted vocals that are mixed low so that the noise takes precedent over the vocals through much of this. However not all of the tracks have vocals. The tracks have that steady saturated growl to them that you often find in Power Electronics. Harsh consistent textures with some amount of control exerted over them, and the coming and going of higher frequencies as juxtaposition and either a touch of atmosphere or added teeth. In this case depending on the track they add both. There are also ambient drones used to create a reserved atmospheric thread on some of the pieces. However that steadiness and lack of spatial and volume dynamics remains pretty consistent even in these pieces. The movement is subtle, and at least for this moment, is making me think of Troum or one of the ambient drone projects shoveled through a heap of distortion. The tracks are all pretty long, at least by PE standards consistently exceeding the 6 or 7 minute mark. While they all bare a similarity to each other I'm finding myself enjoying this more than I feel like I normally would. Something about this despite its relative sameness has an intriguing quality to it that is keeping me interested. I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't really become a factor until you get into the release a way. After a couple tracks, it hasn't grabbed you just yet, but as it progresses it becomes more involving. Fire In The Head sent along two newer releases with this that are as yet unreleased, and according to the promo sheet, better than this. I haven't had a chance to spin them yet. I probably won't review them since they aren't publicly available at this time, but there is a promising side to this project that now has me eager to check out these other two. "Forgive With Flame" is a solid and curious howl of gritty heavily distorted PE/Death Industrial with a nice mix of spectral atmosphere, and a minimal and tactfully delivered vocal approach. Give this one a little time and it will draw you into it. - Scott