Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Hard Rock
Label: Stomp Records

Byron Stroud, best known for his work in Strapping Young Lad and Fear Factory, started this band from the reunion of Caustic Thought, and brought Burton C. Bell in when the original singer decided not to take part. So what ended up happening is a strange little bastard child was created with City of Fire – its a beast with a very diverse set of teeth.
Opening with the particularly catchy/nut punching “Carve Your Name”, a mood is definitely set for the album, and it’s obvious it’s not a cheery one. The music seems to be taking cues from death metal, with maybe a bit of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest influence (a nod to trad metal song structure/tone) or even Canadian hard rock from the 90′s (hm… strange that…).
There’s even some touches of Type O here.
Overall, there’s tons of stuff going on with various tempos, moods – usually angry or melancholic moods – and textures in the general sound of the album. A great thing about this is it’s catchiness. It wouldn’t surprise me if you checked it out and was singing choruses the next day.
At first listen, however, I hated this. I even wrote a different review that ripped this album all new sets of assholes. Then I listened to it again, and realized it’s pretty damn good. And that I shouldn’t listen to review material when I’m in a bad mood.
Favorite tracks: “Carve Your Name” and “Rising”. The latter s a great hard rock tune while the former is an angry metal song that will definitely get stuck in your head.
7 out of 10.

City of Fire on Facebook.

When: Friday September 10, 2010
Where: New City Suburbs, Edmonton, Alberta

The day that it was announced that Front Line Assembly were coming to Edmonton I started to salivate. Their first show in North America in like three years or something like that? Shit yeah I’ll be there. Wait, what? They hand-picked local industrial heroes iVardensphere to open for them? SWEET! And with the nice price of $22 per ticket, it was going to be a golden night. Too bad we had to wait for more than a month with our tickets in hand before the show.

Doors were at nine, with DJ Kaine Delay kicking the night off with a sweet set of punk and industrial, warming up the crowd for the asskicking that was to come.

At ten or so (I forgot my camera, which is also my clock) iVardensphere took the stage with some extra help from Booming Tree, a local pair of Taiko drummers, and a conga and djembe drummer as well. Instead of the usual hard industrial feast that we’ve all come to know and love from Scott and Chris, tonight was going to be extra special. A night of tribal, tribal, and a little more tribal was on tap, featuring a setlist that according to Scott was very much indicative of the new album. The classic Scatterface song “Bonedance” was still played, but with having more live percussion added to it, it was even more intense. A ten or fifteen minute jam was also included, which I think is becoming a permanent fixture in the iVardensphere show, at least here on home soil.
Oh, and just cuz I can tell you, I got a shirt.

After iVardensphere left the stage, it was quickly set up for the headliner of the night, Front Line Assembly, who came and quickly went for the throat. At the end of it, I wished there was more, and yet it was everything I expected and beyond. The band, for those that don’t somehow know, are legends in the industrial field, and were the birthing ground of several careers, including Rhys Fulber (Fear Factory producer/keyboards) and Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad). Right now they have members of Vancouver’s cyberpunks Left Spine Down (whom Kaine Delay fronts) rocking out on keys and guitar. And on top of all this, Justin Hagberg from 3 Inches of Blood joined the on-stage insanity to play three (ish) songs from the new FLA album, which he is also featured on!
It was like watching “How To Properly Play Industrial With Metal Overtones And Become Huge Fucking Legends Doing It 101″!
And again, just cuz I can tell you, I got a hoodie and a drum head that’s autographed by FLA, including J Hag.

In all: I went to bed at 2:30 am and was supposed to work at 6. I slept in and was 45 minutes late for work. It was so beyond worth it.