SHITFIRE (It Runs Deep) CD
It's always inspiring to listen to a new band, who are capable to engrave an own style within the borders of restricted genre as it's the case with doom. But SHITFIRE's debut, released through the band's own label Hell's War Records, is an entertaining heavy musical journey into the world of sludge tinged doom that stands out of most of today's releases. This US band isn't afraid to break up typical well-known patterns with surprising breaks or dissonant guitar parts, and I think that their self-description "stoner-doom" is not very accurate. Especially every average "stonerrock" fan will push the stop-button after the first minutes, because SHITFIRE are spreading a very gloomy, uncomfortable atmosphere and in combination with all the turns and changes within their songs, it makes them hard to swallow for the average "stoner" crowd.
Well, anyway, another aspect here is that Rwake are close friends of the group and in my opinion, this brotherhood has left some traces in their sound, but this gang isn't as experimental as Rwake and SHITFIRE are more focused on heavy chunky riffathons. Not only the guitar and bass sound is very massive, but also the song structures have convinced me right from the start, because they aren't only a simple repetition of what once was original. Currently, my impression is that some people just listening to their Vitus and Candlemass records and after that they enter the next rehearsel space and try to copy their favourite doom records. What a waste of time! But SHITFIRE definitely don't belong to this sort of band. and although the group still needs some development, "It Runs Deep" is a very good start and I hope to hear more from them in the dark and uncertain future.
(KK)