Babylon Fire
Dark Horizons
Released: 12th November, 2012
Heavy Metal
Released via Rocksector Records
Babylon Fire is a band who says they are influenced by older metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and also by the newer bands like Stone Sour, Machine Head, and Five Finger Death Punch. This blend of older heaviness with a new, clean vocal style has created a unique sound that goes beyond standard metal to create something with a bit more groove and rhythm to it. Although they’ve been a band for five years now, their first full length album Dark Horizons depicts their influences very well.
Every song on this album had a medium to fast tempo that kept it diverse and exciting to listen to. The first song on this 12 track album, The Clarion Call, wasted no time in drawing you in with fast paced riffs and that made you instantly hooked into the song. However, I found it hard to enjoy the music itself because of the vocals. While I am not opposed to mixing clean vocals with fast and melodic riffs, I felt that the vocals were too overpowering in every song. Also, the mix of clean vocals with growling vocals made it confusing at first, in my opinion, as to what kind of band they were trying to be.
In modern metal and heavy music, there seems to be this pattern now where bands want to incorporate so many different influences into their music. I feel that Babylon Fire shows each of their influences throughout this album but with the newer influences definitely being the more dominant sound. I would recommend this album to anyone who is a fan of Five Finger Death Punch, Stone Sour, or any other band that sounds like them. While I could hear subtle influences of older heavy metal throughout Dark Horizons, I feel that they are definitely a newer sounding band.
3.8/5
Lauren Gowdy
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