s/t by The Holy Fire

The band pulls an awful lot of depth and layers out of a simple four-person line up (two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals), especially considering the fact that the songs here are nothing more fancy than three-minute rockers.

The band's songs are indeed well-structured, though the urgency of singer/guitarist Sean Hoen's voice often drives the songs to garner a progressively more urgent sentiment as they unfold. The very best thing about The Holy Fire is that these guys are able to put together sounds that create moods and atmospheres that are as important as the song structures themselves (a la The Cure and My Bloody Valentine). There are subtle inferences to so many bands within this EP that even the very first listen of the disc can feel like reuniting with an old familiar friend.

The first minute or so of verse riffing in "Lift Off Message" opens like an ode to Queens of the Stone Age, though the chorus veers off in a more spacey direction; the song eventually winds up on more of a shoegazing bent than anything else. "In Signs" is one of the disc's biggest standouts - a sublimely intense track with stuttering drumming and rhythm guitars just fuzzy enough to give the song an exciting, dirty sound. The lyrically caustic "Sleeping, Screaming Boy" ("Do you need anyone to scream you to sleep anymore?") is a refreshing track, meshing dark vibes with surprisingly catchy stop-and-go rhythm guitars that back a sing-along chorus.

The band shows a dreamy, more ethereal side on "I Heard Your Song," as the guitars ring out in delicate goodness for the first half of the track; the song slowly emotionally crescendos, though, peaking with Hoen's announcement of, "I thought I heard your song when I was falling apart." The guitars on "Outside the Mercury" sound like spaced out Paul Westerberg riffs, which appropriately segues into the lush, intense instrumental closing of "Lehman's Lament."

There's a surprising amount of good stuff packed into these six songs, as The Holy Fire seems to have drawn inspiration from The Afghan Whigs, The Replacements, My Bloody Valentine, and The Cure (amongst others) to create a truly epic-sounding EP. If this recording is any indication of the future, than The Holy Fire's forthcoming 2005 full-length release should be album-of-the-year quality. Recommended to the highest degree."

From Real Detroit Weekly (2004)--

"Hands down this EP redefines what a rock a band from Detroit should sound like. These guys throw out the garage revival and burn the trash can with their dark pop hook and angular rhythms."

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