Having just completed ten years of their career, Fires In The Distance have just released “Circadian Promises”, their best album, which completes the codification of one of the most impactful sounds and imagery of today's metal scene. The Connecticut band is certainly part of the thick death doom crowd, but thanks to an obsessive attention to sound and marked gothic influences, at the same time it distances itself from it, ending up exerting a strong fascination on other types of listeners too.
Since the opening entrusted to “Of Radiance And Levitatiobn”, the perennial game between a desperate register growl and another clear and epic one (by Craig Breitsprecher) once again recalls the narrative dynamism of the gothic-metal giants My Dying Bride, just as the cover is once again dark and always inspired by the dark brushstrokes of late English romanticism, as well as by John Singer Sargent.
However, it is the soundof course, the main force of the brutal quintet. First of all, we must mention the constant presence of the piano, hidden behind the doom earthquake of the guitars and the toning rolls of Jordan Rippe's double pedal, but always prominent enough to give a very peculiar neoclassical feel to each of the songs. And then strings and electronics, never overused, instead carefully dosed and allowed to dominate the stage in the poignant atmospheric interludes of “Lightless Day Of A Songless Bird” and “Once The Silence Takes Your Place”. With his riff heinous and an omnipresent cinematic piano, the latter is probably the most emotional “scene” of the entire work.
With its unstoppable riot of swirling guitars, the final “Agonal Dreaming” is instead the epic peak of a record that seems pervaded by a heroic spirit and a narrative inspiration of times gone by. With a performance like this, with this ability to build personal and impressive atmospheres, defining Fires In The Distance as epigones of the Nordic Insomnium and Dark Tranquility would now be a great mistake. Instead, they must be acknowledged that, despite deriving from various pre-existing elements, theirs is a dark, personal and powerful metal.
06/28/2026
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
