The Safety Fire - Yellowism

     It's a bit of a cartographic trope or cliche that the edges and unexplored regions of maps often have dragons drawn in or on them, leading to the phrase "here be dragons"*. Well, if I were mapping the proggy depths of the sound of today's band, I might mark the fringes with the phrase "here be moustaches".

     Check out any recent photo or video of British proggers The Safety Fire and you'll know what I'm talking about, as one or more members always seems to be sporting something hairy and hipster on their upper lip. But don't let the look fool you: The Safety Fire's debut LP Grind the Ocean was the real deal, and now they've got a solid sophomore record under their belts in the form of last month's Mouth of Swords.

     Mouth of Swords has a veritable fistful of cool parts and songs, but for today I'm going with "Yellowism" for the sheer chugga-chugga riffage quotient. It might not be the band's proggiest tune, but it's got enough heavy to make up for it. I don't know if I dig Mouth of Swords quite as much or quite as immediately as I dug Grind the Ocean, but nice meaty songs like this one certainly don't hurt.

* Let's ignore for the time being the fact that Wikipedia tells me the actual phrase "hic sunt dracones" only actually appears a couple of times on real maps, shall we?

Song of the Day: The Safety FIre - Animal King

     All the talk of late re: The Safety Fire seems to be about their forthcoming sophomore disc, which is all well and good. But let's not forget the strength of their first album.

Song of the Monday: The Safety Fire - Red Hatchet

     Yeah, I know. I owe you a song. And I was all ready to post it yesterday, along with a little something else, but then I fell asleep at like seven o'clock last evening and that plan went out the window. So we're going to do a little time-warping today (you'll see what I mean in just one second) and get right back on track.

Song of the Day: The Safety Fire - Grind the Ocean

     While we're on the subject of better-than-average djenty records that came out last year we might as well feature another song by British techheads The Safety Fire.

Song of the Day: The Safety Fire - Huge Hammers

     Today I've got some new stuff for you, even for me. In other words, even I am just discovering British metal band The Safety Fire, so we get to share the new band experience together today. I just picked up The Safety Fire's first full length disc, Grind the Ocean, the other day, based largely on hearing today's song a while ago.  After my initial listen to about half the album on my way home from work this morning, I'd describe The Safety Fire as an above-average metal/metalcore band with some djenty leanings and flashes of Protest the Hero and Between the Buried and Me. The potential to grow on me is definitely there. I'll have to finish up with it and give it a few more listens before I really make up my mind.

     In the meantime, you can enjoy your song for today, Grind the Ocean's first single and video "Huge Hammers". It's a pretty good song, and so far it seems like a decent indicator of what the Safety Fire is all about. Let me know what you think, and I'll see you tomorrow.