The Physics of Fire

I really am rather sad. I'm sad because BtA has vanished, and in it's place is some so-so progressive metalcore band. That's right, progressive metalcore. There isn't a hint of death metal on this cd. And when I say progressive, don't think I mean long songs. In this case, progressive means fairly standard length songs with excessive use of keys, a fair amount of slow, clean guitars, and hit or miss clean vocals. So this cd is definitely different from Terminate Damnation, but are all the differences bad?

First of all, unlike TD, the bass here is completely undetectable, so there is nothing to say about the bass, except to mention its lack thereof. The use of keys on this cd is much more common, and with the exceptions of “Construct and Collapse”, and “Fire Made Flesh” they really just detract from the overall flow of the cd, and make it sound somewhat cheesy. When a normal Piano is used (as opposed to the more electronic sounds usually made by the keys), it fits in well with the songs. I wish they would have ditched the keys, and just occasionally used piano, but I think they tried (and failed) to use the keys to add an epic atmosphere to the cd. The drumming on this cd seems to be about on par with TD. However, the drumming on TD wasn't anything mindblowing, so to say that the drumming on this cd is on par with that isn't saying a lot. The guitar work on this cd is quite good, but it's still painfully obvious that they lost a guitarist since their last album. The guitar work is much less technical than TD (which could have almost been classified as technical metalcore). The solos are the most technical parts of the song, so in that respect, they are excellent, but they all end up sounding the same (lots of tapping and speed, but little emotion), and get boring fast. One place the guitar shines are the riffs, especially in “Endure”, and in this respect, it's probably as good as BtA's previous release. However, unlike on TD, Jason's vocals here are very boring and repetitive. This time around he uses no death grunts or hardcore shrieks, only tried and true metalcore growls. That for me, was one of the biggest let downs of this cd, because I thought that they really did excellently with the vocals on the last cd. Clean vocals were non-existent on the last cd, but thanks to guitarist Alex Kenis, we get some here. Sadly, even the clean vocals are problematic. Alex's wavering, sometimes pitchy singing usually doesn't mesh very well with Jason's harsh growls. That isn't to say that all the clean vocals are bad. Some songs, such as “Immolation”, and “Second Death” have excellent vocals, and in these songs I could see Alex becoming a potent voice for BtA in the future. One final note/complaint; TD had an excellent acoustic song in “Nights Sorrow”, but there isn't anything of that caliber here, and that really makes this cd less enjoyable for me.

So obviously, the musical aspects of this cd fall short of TD, and many other albums, but how do the lyrics and artwork compare? I actually found the lyrics to be one of my favorite parts, especially in the four segment “Physics of Fire” epic. The lyrics here are very exciting and well written, and I really enjoyed how they had a focus on fire in all their songs. It gives the songs a slightly more epic feel when you know that they are all connected lyrically. Unsurprisingly, Dan's artwork for TD is decidedly better than the artwork on Physics of Fire. It's not that I don't like the concept behind POF's art. Actually, I really like the concept, but I dislike how the art looks like it was done with some 3D program on the computer. The photos in the booklet are excellently done, and depict each band member with fire on some part of their body.

BtA's sophmore effort is a fairly good prog-metalcore album, but it just doesn't compare to TD. They really seem to have taken an unexpected step backwards with this release, and we can only hope that they will do much better next time. Recommended only to fans of metalcore and BtA.