Review: Healing Magic ‘Volume I: Fire’
There’s angst and anger, and some kind of sickness in this healing.
High gain is king here, accompanied by the harsh rawness and tight throat bellowing, all coming from guitarist and vocalist Amadeus Cavalera. The drums by Johnny Valles are bringing the groove and keeping the blood flowing.
The riffs range from an aggressive doom style to thrashy old school extreme metal. It’s somewhat an unusual result in the opening track Mystic Desert, but it covers a lot of ground and it’s effective. There are some classic Cavalera style touches around. The vocals are harsh and raw in a somewhat familiar way, but Amadeus still sounds fresh and angsty.
Smoke Horns doesn’t shy away from aggression at all. The thrash element is here again, and it slows down and speeds up in a familiar way which I can’t help but enjoy. The extended doomy ending section is also really awesome in its abundance of distortion. Sounds so soothing.
Resting opens up with some clean guitar bringing in a very nappy feeling. Time for another bowl? Distortion builds up on these melodies, reaching a peak when the vocals explore some different, creepy ground. The band sludges along led by the noodly guitars, which take quite a bit of time to reach full riffing before the end of the track.
angsty vibes paired against harder doomier riffing…
A Guiding Flame takes the plunge into a faster, more driving sound, of simple but catchy riffs and bellowing vocals. The band speeds up and slows down in a very organic way at some points in this song, which really accentuates the dynamics and makes it a lot more fun to listen to. Wolf Coven keeps the same energy going strong on the next track, with some of my favorite riffing in the album. Can’t go wrong with wolf howling samples.
The Lion’s Throne sounds great. It seems that the guitar production in the melodic parts really works. This is a heavier track overall, full of hard slow breakdown type grooves. The band changes tempo into more extreme thrash territory in great short departures that move along this somewhat lengthy track. Solar Valley is another speedier theme with emphasized epic-ness and plenty of variety. This sounds like it was inspired by the heat in the southwest US desert. The thrashy punky speed element is given more room here, which is a great thing.
Volcanic is another sludge-y track, with the angsty vibes paired against harder doomier riffing, in what proves to be an important part of the band’s sound. Leaving Ashes takes the hard riffing from earlier and pairs it with epic vocals and some faster moments for emphasis, along with the melodic riffing halfway through before sludging it up again. This track does a good job of bringing in the many different sounds of the band.
There’s an epic yet human sensibility at play that comes across through these songs. The album is fun to listen to, and probably great for a long drive.
Label: Blood Blast
Band Links: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Goro Riffs
