Faith Buried in Flames is a groove metal band from Norfolk, Nebraska, which is the city in which I am currently working. It is one of only two metal bands from this area I am aware of, though the other one may be defunct. I am honestly surprised there is even one.
Groove metal is not really a genre of which I am a big fan. I like some Pantera, some Machine Head, the Sepultura groove metal era, Exhorder, and a few other random bands. But for some reason Nebraska seems to produce a number of groove metal bands. Deadechoes and Seppeku are two such bands that were reviewed on this blog. More than likely this is due to Nebraska being hopelessly behind the times. Faith Buried in Flames is a pretty decent groove metal band really. Their music is not the simplistic, meat-headed style that has become synonymous with the genre name. There are some complexities in this music with some other elements that keep it from becoming a typical and boring groove metal album.
There are the occasional death metal elements to be found in the music. That in and of itself makes this far more interesting than the stereotypical groove metal album. Faith Buried in Flames has some impressive death metal riffing going on in several places. The guitar work for the most part is very entertaining and keeps things from growing stale. The band also uses the occasional acoustic interlude to break up the otherwise fast-paced and punishing songs.
The album does tend to drag a little bit by the end, but for the most part it is a bit of a wild ride. I was overall very impressed by this release. Hopefully they can keep things going and not get discourage by having their home in an otherwise metal-deficient part of the state.
"I recently had an occasion to meet a member of this band, though I will not tell you how or which one."
ReplyDeleteI think I can figure out how.
Guitar player on the left in the Metal Archives picture looks really familiar. Looks like the same dude from the other band, so it must be Kingsley. If I'm not mistaken, he was the dude in Helldorado, which distributed a 2-song CDR demo in the early 2000's. He sold it out of the guitar store he ran for a while downtown. One song started off with him yelling, "Heineken? Fuck that shit. Pabst Blue Ribbon!" This was before PBR was associated with hipsters, to my knowledge. He was also in Stryk9 (sp?), which also had a guy from my high school class and played in our school talent show. At the time (1999 or 2000) they played Godsmack and Coal Chamber, and more that I can't remember.
Anyway, if that is indeed the same guy, then he has almost single-handedly kept Norfolk's metal "scene" on life support for over 15 years.
I do remember seeing one of his bands play, and to introduce a song he asked if anyone had a big motherfucking truck. Knowing what song he was talking about, I yelled in approval, but no one else did. He said that one was for me. I still chuckle when I think about that.