The Fire And I have been on the Scottish alternative music scene for as long as I can remember (which isn’t that long as I’ve only been living in Scotland for 8 years). But for whatever reason I’ve only seen them live once, which was a short mid-day set at Edinburgh’s Haddow Fest back in 2011. It was a great live set, with lots of energy, riffing and dynamics thrown back and firth between bassist Gordon Love and drummer Hooligan Sadikson. I simply haven’t seen them since as I’ve always had other commitments whenever they played Edinburgh again. Now they’re about to release their second album Double Kamikaze on CarCrash Records and it’s a rather good release, though with some minor issues I will discuss below.
The Fire And I is a two-piece that play some heavy (mostly distorted) bass riffing and some impressive drumming. A lot of tracks on the album, especially the instrumental album opener ‘Devil Damned Thoughts’, draw comparisons with That Fucking Tank as they have a similar sound musically and structurally. Other tracks have a more ‘commercial’ touch to them, sounding a bit like fellow Scots Biffy Clyro. Both comparisons are not bad comparisons by the way.
There really is a bit of everything for the alternative music fan on Double Kamikaze, from the heavy riffing in said album opener ‘Devil Damned Thoughts’, ‘Ruined Graffitied’, ‘The Lure’, ‘Unlock My Sanity’ and ‘Bitten’, to very catchy songs such in ‘Strobe’, ‘De Fetus King’ and ‘Washing Over’ and even a ballad ‘Coming Loose’, which deserves some proper radio play as it's one of those tracks that just gets stuck in your head all day.
There are a couple of minor issues with Double Kamikaze though, which stand in the way of making this a top Scottish release. The production is a bit too much demo-like for my liking. The sound of the open hi-hats for example just sound too much like you’re standing next to Hooligan in the rehearsal studio. The main vocals sound a bit too much in the foreground in the mix, and the backing vocals get a wee bit on my nerves in the end, with the repeated shouts in nearly every song, although in ‘Bitten’ this dual vocal concept works really well. The main vocals also get my doubt at some points, especially in the title track ‘Double Kamikaze’, where they just sound a bit out of tune to my ears, or the vocal line doesn’t fit for some reason. Maybe it’s just me by the way.
But, the minor criticisms aside, Double Kamikaze is a really good release and many alternative music fans will no doubt really enjoy this. The album finishes nice and strong as well, with the final three tracks ‘Bitten’, ‘De Fetus King’ and ‘Washing Over’ being my personal favourites.
All in all a solid strong release despite some minor flaws.
