Album Review: City of Fire –“Trial Through Fire” (2013)

City of Fire
Shostround Productions Inc.
Second studio album
Trial Through Fire
April 9, 2013
10 tracks long. Length: 42:56

City of Fire is the side project of Burton C Bell (Fear Factory) and ex-Fear Factory bassist Bryan Stroud, along with guitarist Sho Murray and drummer Bob Wagner. Having released their debut album back in 2010 and with recently both Burton and Bryan devoted to other popular projects, the new album was delayed some months. The reasons for this are quite unclear but several people have hinted at Burton not wanting to sign off on the paperwork — which, undoubtedly, left some fans confused but with City of Fire’s management reiterating that the PLEDGE members would get the album first.

Having now listened to this for a couple of weeks and with a lot of time to digest this album, it is now clear to me that this album is somewhat stuck in mud at times — these were my first thoughts; there is a lot of musical nourishment to take away from this album, but still I can’t help but feel that Burton — and Burton alone — has really killed the momentum for this album, or how well it could do. At times I had to turn it off because that’s all I kept on thinking over and over again.

Trial Through Fire’s cover artwork I simply love, those are bonus points in my book. Cover artwork is important because it should give the listener a visual representation of the album they are going to listen to; sometimes a band gets it right, perfect at times, but then other bands just get it horribly wrong. Trial Through Fire’s artwork does the job: it’s a bird that appears to be flying from out of the fire? Yup, just great.

I finally got past my initial thoughts, and whilst this album has a lot of variation through its running time, it actually gets under your skin after a few listens — hence my change of mind. There are tracks which initially start off song (an acoustic guitar, for example) but then it changes as the heavier aspects are introduced. The single, “Bad Motivator” – which was released some months prior thanks to delay of the album, is as clear indication as any of how the album will sound.

The middle of the album – “Olympus Mons”, “Oceanut” and “Dichotomy Blues” – are my three favourite tracks. Why? Because, first off you have a real groovy track like “Olympus Mons” then mixed up with a soft and heavy track like “Oceanut” which is jut beautiful, and then back to the heavy with “Dichotomy Blues”. I must’ve listened to these tracks the most so far, because I just like these tracks the best.

“Made of Stars” and “Steps To Redemption” close off the album really well, both of them both soft and brooding tracks. Also there is a cover of Deepeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence” as well, which is a cover song. There was also one – “Rain” – on their 2010 debut as well.

Overall, Trial Through Fire is an album that I longed to hear for a while but due to the delays I had to wait. I didn’t mind. But to finally hear goes to show that perhaps this band has legs if ever, and I dare to say, Burton’s or Bryan’s main bands fall by the wayside — with Fear Factory who knows? But 3 Inches of Blood are however just a young and up-and-coming band, so go figure. This album, like I said before, has a lot of musical nourishment throughout its running length. A lot of positives can be taken away from it and even less bad points here, and really I don’t have any negative to say against this album, nothing at all. Then again, I don’t know whether this is a good album or a great album.

RATING: 3 / 5.