Saturday: The Safety Fire - Glass Crush

     Next up is a Saturday post, except that this week I'm going with a bit of a "Sadder Day" theme. Why so glum, chum? Because we're mourning the loss/celebrating the career of Australia's The Safety Fire, who, in an April Fool's joke that wasn't, actually broke up a few months ago...apparently.

     The guys took to Facebook last week to confirm what many probably thought was a fully legit joke. As usual, who knows exactly what factors into the demise of a band? All I can say is I'll actually miss this particular outfit, as their melodic, often-groovy prog-djent tickles my fancy. But rather than be too down, let's do this thing Irish wake-style and remember the good times.

     To that end, your Sadder Day song is "Glass Crush" from The Safety Fire's 2013 sophomore disc Mouth of Swords. Pour yourself a drink (sensing a theme around here lately?), fire this bad boy up, and then try to not crush your glass... See what I did there? Yeah you do.

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.