Chainfire, in my mind comes at you with pretty straight forward metal. Think Metallica with a tad more edge in general.
The man behind Chainfire is Bradley Scrivener, guitarist, lead vocalist, and lyricist on the nine songs on this the bands debut CD effort. Now for a pet peeve, the rest of this four-piece power outfit are identified on the CD only by their first names only. It's too bad the other members aren't given a little more recognition than being Chris – drums, and so on.
One thing I do like about the package is a totally macabre and totally memorable piece of photo art on the back of the CD, of a girl with sad, bleeding eyes. It's a tad creepy, but it certainly catches attention and on a crowded CD rack in some music store that is essential. I might have suggested the piece be incorporated into the front of the CD.
Back to the music.
This is guitar-driven music, where a few times the music transcends the vocals, but they do a decent job, at least on the recording of keeping it balanced. I would fear live the voices would get totally lost behind a wall of guitars.
Under Me is the cut that the band is pushing first as a single, although my fav is Laydown, and the seven-minute title cut is great. I love metal pieces that rumble on past three-minute radio-friendly song lengths.
If you are into metal check these guys out at www.chainfire.ca
As a Saskatchewan band alone they deserve attention in any local metal collection, and frankly this CD is worth owning no matter where you hail from.
-- Reviews first appeared in Yorkton This Week newspaper Sept. 5, 2007 - Yorkton, SK. Canada
