Open Fire

Back in 2013, Armory was a four-piece Swedish group getting in on the resurgence of melodic metal bands pumping out classic material. With the deployment of second full-length The Search in 2018, they rose above that level and became a genuine name of that NWOTM scene, focusing on the speedier end of the spectrum and delivering a slightly technical sound with interesting vocal effects. This formative demo sees the group more keen than skilful, especially in the vocal department.

I could go either way with Open Fire, mostly because the nasty mix and messy vocals make this feel chaotic without any definite sense of direction. The guitars are crunchy and a little too trebly, racing ahead of everything and making quite a lot of unnecessary noise, which the drums copy, the bass not needing to be particularly clear to cause a right racket. Shouty, tuneless vocals don't help matters, nor do the mediocre solos, arriving in most songs at unexpected moments and just causing more confusion by going fast and crazy yet not cultivating interest, just excitement. The screaming vocals that turn up towards the climax of 'Claustrophobic Death' make the experience a little more visceral instead of just quick and noisy, pushing the riffing closer to thrash than speed and sounding dangerous as a result. In fairness, most of the songs have nice fast riffs that are just obscured a little too much by the poor sound.

If Armory decide to redo Open Fire with decent recording quality, I'd be up for listening to that, but this release doesn't appeal very much in its current state. The group started pretty much as they meant to go on, operating with high energy and lightning guitars; however, you're probably better off joining the quartet (now quintet) at the album stage for a more polished product.