Record of the Week: Siege Fire: The Devastating Cost LP

Siege Fire: The Devastating Cost 12” (Black Water Records) Black Water Records brings us the vinyl debut from this Portland band. Siege Fire released a demo a few years ago as a two-person recording project, but for The Devastating Cost they’ve expanded to a full lineup, and a formidable one at that. Black Water’s description references Framtid, and while Siege Fire’s intensity is comparable, you shouldn’t make the mistake of dismissing them as mere homage. The riffing is dense and inventive, even though it’s often difficult to make out those riffs through the effects-laden guitar sounds, and the songwriting seems designed to keep the listener off-balance, the songs packed with dramatic transitions and sudden shifts in volume and rhythm. While there’s plenty of blistering hardcore, Siege Fire is particularly strong in those rare moments when they take the gas off the floor, like the interesting rhythms that open and close “Ensnared,” the stretched out rock and roll ending on “A Chain from the Shadows,” the industrial feel to the breakdown on “Death Plume,” and mid-paced “The Devastating Cost,” whose inventive drumming makes it one of the record’s most exciting songs. Everything about The Devastating Cost seems perfectly calibrated to maximize the music’s intensity, from the ambitious songwriting to the bulldozing performance to the production, where they’ve sculpted an arsenal of tones that could skin a gator from a hundred yards away. There’s so much excitement jammed into The Devastating Cost that I could spend all day pointing out highlights, but all you really need to know is that this is a certified ass-beater.