Reviewed by Aaron Cloutier
“Seeds Of Tomorrow” from South Floridian Metal band “Age of Fire” is a smoldering slab of heavy played with a punk-rock intensity and wrapped up in an old-school production style.
Listeners are immediately greeted by the crunchy guitars and air-tight bass lines that are signature to the genre as flattened fifth riffs, hammer-on/pull-off freakouts, and pinch harmonics mesh with infectious grooves and intense low end. Sure to make any fan of the genre make a whiskey face of approval.
The chaos, however, is controlled by drums which wrangle everybody in and glue everything together in a quasi groove-metal fashion. I feel you can bob your head to this just as easily as you can headbang. You’ve got options here. I like to mix it up myself.
What struck me the most about this track were the vocals. For the most part, they adopt an early punk rock type of attitude in the delivery. The verses are almost entirely devoid of melody as the singer spins tales of impending doom at the hands of narcissistic world leaders, a loss of reason, a lack of empathy, and other feel-good topics appropriate for the genre. In the band’s own words, the inspiration behind the song is “About how our decisions today affect our tomorrows.” So it’s safe to say that there isn’t a big, pretty bow of optimism tied around this one, and frankly, I’d be disappointed if it did.
Arguably, the strongest hook and the element of the song that made the biggest impression on me was the chorus. Epically dark and bathed in reverb surrounded by tasteful harmonies, the contrast between the hook and the more attitude-ridden, almost talkative verses make the chorus stand out as a true ear worm. Super catchy.
Check out “Seeds Of Tomorrow” along with three other heavies from Age of Fire’s brand new EP, which as of this writing, is out now!
About Age of Fire
Formed in South Florida in 1988, Age of Fire set out to create their own style of Heavy Metal. To date, they have music that touches on thrash, symphonic, melodic and progressive metal. Having played clubs throughout the East Coast and Florida, they disbanded in 1991 but were resurrected by founding member Greg Brown in 2018. Since then, their music has been heard on over 1,000 traditional and satellite radio stations around the world. The band continues to be featured in international media including Metal Hammer (Portugal), The Metal Mag (Europe), Fireworks (UK), Hard Music Base (Slovakia), Permafrost (Norway), Dead Rhetoric (USA/Sweden), Bunker (Russia), Iron Backstage (USA), Battlehelm (USA/UK/Sweden), High Speed Hangover (UK), Encyclopaedia Metallum (Canada) and Megadeth’s Megacruise. They are represented by SWC Global Media LLC, endorsed by Solar guitars and Dirtbag clothing.
Purchase the EP and learn more on their Bandcamp!
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