Sometimes, people can have the idea of a ‘tug of war’ happening in the Metal scene: on one side are the bands that aren’t satisfied with evolution that Metal took after the 80s, and that prefer to use an Old School form to make music; on the other side are those bands that aren’t caring about ideas of the past, and are just looking to something on their own. Both sides have good and bad points, so anyone can do whatever they want (just having to respect others opinions, and try to indoctrinate their own asses). And sometimes one act try to renew things, but using a more tradition insight, as the German quartet LIVING THE FIRE, as can be heard on their second album, “Newman”, a conceptual album. What they’re playing is something different from the usual: it’s an Avant-garde mix between Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal, Power Metal and anything else.

It’s simple: to get the elements of such genres and to combine them in a personal and energetic form, trying to evade the use of clichés (because mixing Thrash Metal and Heavy Metal is known since the 80s), with some modern adornments on the instrumental arrangements (because the band don’t renounce to influences of the 90s), Their musical work is really different, catching and inspiring, melodic and with the right level of aggressiveness, and it’s not hard to like it. The writing and conception of “Newman” was done during the forced break world had during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the production was done in a DIY way (what means they recorded, produced, mixed and mastered the songs themselves). The final result is something distorted, abrasive and heavy, but in a defined way that allows the fans to understand what’s being played. It’s very good, but could be better in one point: it sounds a bit ‘artificial’ in some moments.

Musically, the quartet exhibits its maturity and that their formula is almost ready (their creative potential isn’t at its peak, what means the hearers can expect a lot of them), so the idea when dealing with songs as “Newman” (there are fine contrasts between melodic and aggressive parts, with some bombastic and grandiose parts of bass guitar and drums), “Weak and Frightened” (some groove and Hard Rock touches can be heard in the middle of the mix, and the guitars are showing fine aggressive riffs contrasting with melodic arrangements), “Lords of Truth and Mind” (the weight rhythms contrasting with melodic influences of Power Metal is a fine combination, and the vocals fits perfectly on all the moments), “Conscious Machine” (some modern dark and deeper parts contrasts with aggressive arrangements, with ‘dickinsonian’ vocals in some moments), “Iron Deceiver” (if some tempos are similar to those usual to Power Metal, it’s not a mere coincidence), and “Another World” is that their musical work can be translated with one single word: unconformity. And this is a very good thing, you know.

LIVING THE FIRE has a lot to offer, and “Newman” is really a charming release. But you all can expect much more of this insane quartet.