UNRELENTING UK HARD-HITTERS THE FIRES BELOW DISCUSS THEIR NEW EP EXCLUSIVELY WITH AATR
4th June 2024Powerful UK noise makers, THE FIRES BELOW, charge on with the release of their blistering new EP, Thorns, which arrives on Friday 7th June. With the band on the rise, we caught up with the guys and exclusively asked them to offer up this unique track-by-track breakdown of the EP:“Worth – :
Worth kicks in with a heavy sludge-bomb of a riff that will inevitably make you bop your head; you cannot resist! It’s our slowest-tempo song, but this is what really makes it sound immense. Following a melancholic breakdown and build up the ending doubles down crashing back with the main riff, bringing more energy by upping the tempo. The lyrics are essentially about selfishness, theft, and greed. You can’t take it with you. When all things are said and done, what are the most valuable things you have in your life? It is also about the consequences of our actions and the many victims who are just pawns in the power games evil men.Too Far to Reach – :
A lot is going on in this track and it has a unique feel; it’s certainly been a more exploratory song for us. The chorus riff is catchy enough to stand out and allows for darker experimental parts elsewhere. We are very happy with how this track evolved – it’s heavy, while also feeling unpredictable. The lyrics are about how the world and life can be both simultaneously beautiful and ugly. Amazing and horrendous things both happen, highs and lows, and yet we still just carry on, because what else is there to do? However, it’s within mankind’s power to tip the balance and make living easier and better for everyone, but it’s just a fantasy, because right now at this moment in the Earth’s history, it’s just too far to reach.
No Man’s land:
This is one of our faster punk-influenced songs but with dark undertones and a real emotional side to it. There is a driving tempo, keeping you on the edge of your seat. In the verse, each instrument separates out and then kicks back in together with fury for the chorus. It hails from a place of anger and determination. Smithy has family and friends in Ukraine so when Russia invaded there was a real sense of panic and horror amongst people which he has tried to capture in the lyrics. There is also a real sense of defiance and bravery of the Ukrainian people, we tried to express, who had this overwhelming feeling in their gut to step up and defend their freedom and the future of their children.
Plastic Utopia:
This track is an experimental mix of slow overwhelming darkness contrasted with a strong catchy rhythm. We pushed the boundaries of what we are capable of as musicians. At the core, this song is recognizably The Fires Below, with a high-energy chorus riff, but the slower dark side might surprise you. The title is an oxymoron. On the surface, the lyrics are noticeably about environmentalism. Still, it is also about consumerism, the fake realities projected on social media, and being trapped in a horrible system of our own creation. If you were asked how to describe a ‘Utopia’ the word ‘plastic’ would not come to mind yet it’s present in almost everything we use and do. Plastic does represent the ingenuity of mankind, but ultimately it’s artificial, just like the precariously weak glue that’s barely holding society together.
Thorns:
This song has a lighter tone, with more of a desert rock-driving vibe. The rhythm is unlike our other tracks so far, but we loved the stoner rock feel. We let loose with this song live, freestyling and letting it be as long as needed; so we wanted to capture that feeling of freedom in the recording. It’s also the title track of the EP; we felt it needed to be at the end, a conclusion to everything you have heard up to this point. ‘Thorns’ is about our individual journeys in life, along the road there are going to be hard times, thorns blocking your path, but you just need to push through those dark days and keep going. Most importantly, remember we are all on similar journeys, so you are never alone.”
