Runes

Secrets Of Fire

Single Review

Written by Luke Knowles

Gothic-Soul, bare with me on this one….I often find in reviewing music that labels placed on a band don’t always fully encapsulate the sheer complex nature of a bands sound. While the majority of the time the labels work as a foundation, I feel that it is up to reviewers to try and catch the hidden genre, or the subconscious genre as I like to think of it (sounding like a thesis now). So when I listened to this stand out debut release from Secrets Of Fire I knew that calling it Gothic Rock wouldn’t do it justice. Each moment in this song carries its own little nuances and really gives you an insight into the Birmingham Duo’s inspirations.

Straightaway ‘Runes’ locks into its Gothic and mystical influences through a beautifully put together two chord pattern. The slight off-chord nature of the pattern is like a beaconing finger on the edge of an innocent looking treelike. Once it has your attention the full song kicks in with quite a bouncy bass line combined with a steady rhythm on both the drums and the guitar. This then pulls you further down the path, allowing you to explore the ever changing and almost fluid, yet gritty nature of the soundscape.  However, the most spellbinding element of this song is the one thing that swayed me towards the label of Gothic-Soul. That is the smooth and rich vocals of lead singer Astrid.

From the moment Astrid utters those opening lyrics their voice catches your attention and like a gentle hand it guides you through the song. The sheer effortlessness of their subtle delivery during the verses to the controlled power of chorus, it puts you in mind of big bands and the raw talent of soul singers from the 30’s. Even as you hear Astrid releasing her power amid a bed of uplifting harmonies you almost get the sense that this merely scratches the surface of what Astrid can achieve with her vocal range. By combining the force of nature with his well crafted musical landscape partner and producer River has managed to pull the heart out of the original idea and fully capture everything that the Duo hold important.

Overall, inspired by Mystical intentions and exploring the nature of a more Occult centred existence Secrets Of Fire have launched a mission statement with this debut and proved, to me at least, that they have a prosperous career forming before them. I always enjoy hearing and dicovering artists who have poured all of themselves into their music and I don’t think you find a better example of this than with ‘Runes’

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