VLADIMIR-I Fight Fire CD-EP

Any new CD that starts with a seriously dirty bass riff and rumbling drumming allied to a heart of darkness and distant searing feedback guitar....well, you just know that it's gonna be good – that it turns into something way beyond merely good, is the icing on the cake.
That intro – to “I Fight Fire” - then suddenly stops as this huge echoey guitar riff enters, disappears, the bass riff returns and vocals that sound like the ghost of Ian Curtis through a hazey megaphone, cut in to deliver the lyrics with a decided air of menacing melancholy. That the whole song then takes off into the high-flying chorus is just stunning as they never once lose sight of the mood, maintaining a cohesion of intensity, darkness and tension as the bass continues to rumble, the drums pound and the guitar melts into a mix of psychedelia and feedback, eventually ending in a distant amorphous slice of cosmic wasteland. “Mellow” starts with a mid-paced rolling bass as distant guitar ushers in the positively mournful lead vocal, the slightest touch of cymbals adding a crispness to the darkness. The guitar then gather strength, and all of a sudden unleashes hell and fury as the rhythm section fire up, the vocalist takes on an anguish that's almost scary and the whole track powers out in a jaw-dropping stream of emotion – only to drop right back into the black hole of mid-paced menace where the ashes of Joy Division are still smouldering as the now even more Curtis-esque vocals are accompanied by throbbing bass, rolling drums and red hot guitar. You just know that it's going to take off once again – and they don't disappoint as they fire the engines and lift the rocket ship up with nuclear powered instrumentation and heated vocals, rising with ferocity and firepower as band and singer become a fireball of electricity and magic, intrumentally dense yet every facet of the sound is crystal clear, the vocals threatening to come through your walls at any second. Then it all drops down to the gloom and ends. With barely a pause for breath, the band accelerate into “On My Wall”, a driving slice of post-Joy Division-meets-Krautrock firepower where the singer is a mix of menacing, burning intensity and sneering smiling executioner as the bass takes your head off, the drums hit you squarely in the gut and the guitar becomes a maelstrom of swirling superheated fog, the whole song surging ahead, taking no prisoners. Again, it almost segues into “Passing” where the guitar takes on the role of cyclical riff, the drums thunder like a thing possessed, the bass rumbles like an earthquake and the lead singer takes on the role of mournful angel of death as the whole thing charges along like a comet crashing down to earth as you become acutely aware that if this really is the last song you're ever gonna hear, there's no better way to go. The bass suddenly growls, the drums lurch with weight that you think is gonna fall through the floorboards as that searing riff of a guitar slices your brain in two and when it stops, in a foggy density of sonic soup, you're amazingly left wanting more...... and more, you do get as we move into the final track, “Untitled”, that starts with a distant rolling thunder of drums, almost wrung out guitar, then a sampled voice comes in over the instrumental rain that's lashing down, drums hammer slowly, the feedback is restrained in the background, samples add the necessary air of menace, the drums start to pound, the guitar feeback turns into dirty distant riffing, the bass throbs as it all starts to drive like some out of control other-worldly lawn mower, only to implode in a cloud of instrumental intensity. Then all of a sudden, the rockets fire up, the drums thunder, the bass river flows and the guitar seethes silently in the background as the Faust-like expanse blows you away. Now, you really do want more – a lot more – but there is no more – so you just start again at the first track and relive the whole experience time after time after time – which is good since it is truly timeless stuff – and the epitome of accessible darkness, memorable menace and mighty magic – stunning stuff, indeed.

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