New Album: Forged In Flame - Forged In Flame (EP)

I am so tired and a little hung over. I have just come back home from a weekend at a wedding down in South Florida (four hours from my home). A long weekend of partying, drinking, making fun of friends and trashing hotel rooms. Needless to say I'm pretty beat and although I had enough articles to last me through the weekend, it is once again Monday and my foresight has fallen a bit short... again. So before I pass out (it's Sunday night as I'm writing this), I'm going to listen to Forged In Flame's debut EP.

I have had only a taste of what Forged In Flame has to offer, from the Soda Shop Comp, almost a month ago, so I was ready for some more stoner groove metal to wash over my soul. For that purpose alone, this was a great EP to choose.

Their self-titled EP is a four track assembly of some great stoner mixed with doom, a hint of sludge, and at times a taste of southern. "Miss Mothership," the first track, is the one that I had previously heard, and it still holds up as being great. The second song, "Black Halo," starts off really slow and with simplistic vocals and guitars, which I didn't appreciate too much, but quickly picks up steam into a decent display. The following, "A Ravens Cage," is a return of what the first song had to offer, straight forward groove;  catchy and very rhythmic. The final song, "Hexa," is a little more hard-edged vocally then the rest of the disc, and it sounds of a different recording quality then the rest as well. It sounds slightly like the entire song was processed to sounds vaguely like it was put through a megaphone, like everything is a little bit fuzzy (not only the guitars) and distant. It's an interesting spin, but after the previous three tracks, it is very surprising.

Forged In Flame is a band that shows amazing promise. This EP shows the wealth of music that they can belt out. While I like their groove-based style a whole lot more, they also show off their ability for sludge and doom, neither of which they do poorly. The Soda Shop Comp opened me up to this group, and for that I am thankful. I have another band to add to my watchlist.