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the dead next door

With each listen, this album shows the intricacies which are the strength to this style. The name fits the band well. The vocals are aggro and fiery. Very mature hardcore vocals with enough growl and pitch to remind the listener of grind and death metal. And the guitar equals the vocals. Amazing changes... These guys will probably get compared to Embodyment about a bazillion times, but Spitfire is making their own path. There are really nice time changes and tone changes; very involved and all over the map. This album is worth listening to; just listen to the variety of stuff going on in just one song. Very amazing. It's not as fast as some stuff, but it doesn't feel like that's their route, anyway. And besides, it's crazy fast. The background vocals are more singy and bridge the fast-changing with the melodic. So in case you are one of those types that doesn't do well with the non-melodic metal-core of today, this album may have enough to draw you in and force a deeper listen. Very good background voices as well. Track 4 could easily be the most beautiful song on the album. With an almost seamless entry from the previous trace, the song is full-out yelling and heavy, then breaks into an almost acoustic solo. The yelling comes back in, along with the acoustic sound and more guitars are overlaid. Powerful and inspiring, the song ends in heaviness. The production/recording/engineering is clean, excellent. The mix is nice, too; the vocals are strong enough and yet, not everything. Intelligent work... this album can bring in the fringe listeners to Spitfire's style of metal-core. While this album is unique, it is also following closely in it's predecessors' footsteps. It may not seem unique enough, but this style is making a home big enough to house more than one or two bands. The nuances are what set bands apart, when the drastic does not. This is the case here as well. The uniqueness is found most readily in the use of the melodic background vocals and in some tones and time changes that are not common to this style (not in sound but in some of the changes Roadside came to mind. A temporary lapse of reason? See what you think). Look deeper; that's when it becomes better than average.[Solid State/BM]