My Lycan Me

Inner Fire traffic in that sort of rather boring melodic black metal-ish type stuff that you're probably quite familiar with. Clean (and rather good production), lots of Emperor and Dimmu love, soaring symphonic keys other a bunch of very typical melo black metal riffs. Not the worst thing; just not really worth listening to- the riffs aren't bad but just all really uninspired and limp wristed. Nothing's terribly heavy, and there's not really enough widdly-widdly type stuff to keep you interested- the guitarist(s) try hard with their soloing, but fall short; let down by a very noticeable absence of technique. The keyboards are another sticking point, too; just sitting there in the background, doing rather boring monotonic accomplishments. There's bass? What? Again, not terrible, but rather boring, and incredibly redundant; no one but the most obsessive symphonic black metal fan needs it.

Inner Fire are that kind of band you've heard heaps of time before. They are keen on second wave symphonic black metal, keys with vague ethereal pretensions and typical melo black riffs. It's a bit of a no-show, much of the music is competently played but just goes through the motions. The keyboards are fairly unimaginative, playing tired old progressions far back in the mix, whereas the guitars don't really do anything, being neither fierce or technical enough to make you excited. All in all it's very boring melodic black metal; unless if you're a major fanatic of this stuff don't waste your time.

If there's a dictionary definition of "Bands you've heard heaps of times before" (which there isn't, because that's a sentence, not a word...) then Inner Fire would have a picture there. It's got some clean and powerful production, but that's basically the best thing about it. They sounds a lot like all of those black metal bands with orchestral pretensions- clean and rather unthreatening (and uninteresting, not to mention boring, tedious and lacklustre) guitar riffs, with plenty of rather average tremelo riffs and weak chugging type parts. It's not terrible but unless if you're infatuated with the melodic variant of that well known genre originating from Norway (among other places) then you will likely find this to be really, really boring.

Another thing worth mentioning: there are many musical groups similar to this one. Inner Fire play a very easy on the ears, rather average, common, typical, middling, regular and ordinary type of black metal (much of which corresponds well with our western sense of melody), with keyboards playing sounds that sound roughly similar to orchestral instruments. It's not terrible, or awful, or even dire or unpleasant, just very mediocre and run of the mill. It's sounds like the band that Ihsahn used to play in, and that Vortex currently plays in, too. The guitars tend not to play stuff that's frightening or gets the pulse rate up, just relying on cliched riffs and weak attempts at playing fast 16th notes in a style typical of this genre. The keyboard player is a fairly unimaginative sort, not really playing any notes in a way such that interesting melodies, harmonies or counterpoint are introduced to the music. The music was recorded in a powerful and clean fashion, however, which is praiseworthy.

To summarise, then: Inner Fire play that sort of harmonious black metal that has passed through your ears on innumerable occasions. The person responsible for (among other things) mic placement and using the mixing desk did a good job, but overall it's a very unthreatening, nothing sort of release. Furthermore, there are bands out there who have done this stuff before, and better, too. It's not all that offensive; there are worse things out there. However, unless if you are in love with a melodious sub genre from the type of music that originated in Norway in the late 80's/early 90's, then you would do well to not purchase this record, download it illegally off a torrent site, download it legally, steal this record, buy a bootleg in Russia, or record an exact copy of this record and play it on your stereo/ipod/computer/vinyl player/guitar amplifier/bass amplifier/PA system/portable DVD player/gramaphone/musical box/wax cylinder.