Album Review: Firebreather, Dwell in the Fog
How much volume do you need? How much you got? Many records are made to sound their best when played loud — many more claim to be — but I’ve yet to find the maximum tolerance for Dwell in the Fog, which is the third full-length from Gothenburg, Sweden’s Firebreather and second for RidingEasy Records behind 2020’s Under a Blood Moon (review here) and their 2017 self-titled debut (review here), the latter of which was on Suicide Records. As loud as you want to go, the six-song collection seems ready to meet you there, with an increasing sonic fullness that readily pushes over into outright crush. At some point, in all that fog, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Mattias Nööjd, newcomer bassist Nicklas Hellqvist and drummer Axel Wittbeck would appear to have found concrete to add to their tonality and the impact of their groove, and as a result, tracks like opener/lead single “Kiss of Your Blade” and the side A capper “Weather the Storm” land with an all the more forceful and purposeful thud. This is all a long way of telling you that Dwell in the Fog is very, very heavy, that it knows this about itself and that said heft is integral to the mission of the band on the whole.
It is not, however, the entire mission. Those who’ve followed Firebreather since their inception following the transmogrification from Nööjd‘s prior outfit, Galvano, will note that one of the distinguishing factors between the two projects was Firebreather‘s commitment to a post-High on Fire sense of crash ‘n’ bash, and that element is still a starting point from which they work on Dwell in the Fog, the influence present in cuts across the album’s 39-minute span. The difference, then, between these songs and even those on the last record — aside from the cowbell on “Sorrow”; I hear you in there, you don’t need to hide — is the framing of that influence as a starting point from which Firebreather actively work to cast their own identity. In “Sorrow” and elsewhere — the title-track on side A, for example — one can hear in the band’s songwriting not only these individualized aspects being realized, but the band actively working to make them so. There is much more to Dwell in the Fog, at any volume, than raw charge or the swinging of a battle axe, though to be sure a given listener’s skull may still be cleaved at any moment.
At the same time, there are details throughout Dwell in the Fog that command attention. The stops and the shift in tone before the build-up to the big groove in the penultimate “The Creed” qualify, as do the layered vocals that ensue following that crescendo. Likewise, Hellqvist‘s bass tone brings a character to the low end beneath Nööjd‘s guitar solo on “Weather the Storm” that is especially righteous. It doesn’t seem aesthetically appropriate to call the tracks nuanced or progressive, but there is consideration and awareness of self behind all that pummel that stems from the evolution of the band over the course of the last half-decade, on tour (when possible) as well as in the studio and in the writing.
“Dwell in the Fog” itself is a demonstration of this, for its more patient tempo as well as for the melody underpinning Nööjd‘s vocals. He reminds of Crowbar‘s Kirk Windstein there and in the later moments of “Sorrow” at the outset of side B with his ability to move from barbarian shouts, echoing out from deep in the mix, to a kind of semi-melodic gutturalism. Even on a more intense piece like “Kiss of Your Blade” or the two main verse sections in closer “Spirit’s Flown,” this development of his approach can be heard, and since Firebreather have been consistent in working with producer Oskar Karlsson (Morrow, Agrimonia, Bror Gunnar Jansson, many others) at Elementstudion in Gothenburg, the conclusion one can reach on the issue is that it’s an intentional pushing of boundaries on his part and the band’s.
That’s plenty respectable in principle, but all the more because it works to serve the interests of the songs themselves. “Dwell in the Fog” is a highlight of the full-length that shares its name, and their ability to play tempos off of each other, move one instrument forward or back in the mix at a given time, and have no shortage of bludgeonry on hand when it’s called for, is a resilient strength of their craft. That “Sorrow” can shift so fluidly from its beginning nod into and through its chugging verses, opening to a broader chorus that remains consistent in atmosphere before “The Creed” begins its wavy rollout adds to the flow of side B and the entirety of the release, and while “Weather the Storm” and “Spirit’s Flown” serve different purposes in capping their respective halves of Dwell in the Fog, their ability to make their sound do more than just one thing is further evidence of the growth they’ve won as a result of the work they’ve put in.
It’s a convenient narrative for a third LP to be a moment of arrival for a band functioning on the longer term — that is, the point at which a given act “figures it out” after an initial album and a second in response to the first. Dwell in the Fog may indeed be that for Firebreather; it depends entirely on what they do from here forward. For now, it is unquestionably the strongest work they’ve done, both on a per-song basis and in terms of the album as a whole. The balance they find is more than just that between fast and slow parts, and stems no less from their ability to pull back on outright aggression in favor of establishing a mood that feeds into the overarching impression Dwell in the Fog makes, and more, knows it is making. Despite a change in lineup, Firebreather have made themselves into a broader-reaching and more distinctive unit in the two tumultuous years since their last album. Whatever volume one might enjoy it at, that’s worth appreciating.
Firebreather, “Kiss of Your Blade”
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Tags: Dwell in the Fog, Firebreather, Firebreather Dwell in the Fog, Gothenburg, RidingEasy Records, Sweden
