Would it be their Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood? Or would it crumble under the pressure of following up such a great second album? Or would the band succumb to the pressure of the genre and change up style a la Paradise Lost’s, Shades of God, or My Dying Bride‘s The Angel and the Dark River? Especially with both bands being a clear influence on Fires in the Distance’s melodically tinged take on doom/death metal.

Come on down, Master of Puppets and Reign in Blood.

Now, to be clear, I’m not putting Circadian Promise in the same categories as those legendary, genre-defining, classic albums, but fuck me, this album is good; album of the year good, and in a few years, I think we will be talking about it as a hallmark album in the death/doom genre.

As with the last album, Randy Slaugh has been brought in to help the already talented composer, guitarist/songwriter Yegor Savonin, with some of the orchestral compositions, which, as before, are simply magnificent (although I don’t think the 4-piece string orchestra was brought back?). And also, as with the last album, it is front-loaded, and the back half of the album struggles a bit to catch up, but it does this time. But for crying out loud- how do you even top the opening two tracks here?

Opener “Of Radiance and Levitation” is about as good as it gets for delicate hues blended with a stern mid-paced trundle and some chord progression to simply die for. The little post-verse arpeggio at 2:18, which repeats a few times, is just knee-wilting. The song also introduces new guitarist/vocalist Brendan Hayter (Obsidian Tongue, Thrawsunblat) and his clean croons, which appear a few times on the album and are spectacular. His growls and rasps are not quite as commanding or low as his predecessor’s, but the music here is the star of the show as the band leans into their tangible Insomnium, Opeth, Rapture, Swallow the Sun, Katatonia, and such.

And speaking of Insomnium, the second track, “To You, Author of My Fade”, is by far my favorite song of the year so far. It’s the most urgent track the band has penned, with an utterly stunning opening riff that has a fiercely melodic canter that would make Insomnium or even bands like In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Wolfheart, or Countless Skies blush. Another svelte Hayter chorus adds a level of deep introspection.

The third song, “Lightless Days of a Songless Bird”, has a tough 2 acts to follow, but holds up with a more airy, elegant pulse and lope, with a main riff culled straight from Paradise Lost‘s more gothic rock phase. We then get “By This Time Tomorrow”, which features Johan Reinholdz of Dark Tranquility on a guest solo; it’s the album’s first more pure doom track, with a wondrous, swaying main riff and sonorous melody that you would hear on a My Dying Bride song, and when it transitions from the little spoken word/sample to the epic lead solo- it’s truly breathtaking.

The more lumbering, choppy “Once the Silence Takes Your Place”, while still a solid track, is probably the only song that has no moment or riff that made my knees weak, and the little programming part about 5 minutes in is a bit out of place (but the riff that follows it is damn good). But it’s a solid, despondent, Rapture-ish number that again highlights Hayter’s clean vocals perfectly.

The album ends (albeit too suddenly for my liking) with “Agonal Dreaming”, a brilliant, gorgeously somber track, where the delicate piano interplays with a riff similar to the opening song, just a perfect, perfect blend of sternness and melancholic beauty. Just listen to that riff at 3:31, and then the subsequent orchestral bridge/solo, and staggeringly emotive blast beat. My god. Just fucking perfect.

Circadian Promise is a perfect album in every way, and is indeed their Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood. It’s going to be a sure-fire AOTY contender for me, and for many folks I imagine. One can only hope they follow it up with an … And Justice For All or South of Heaven.

But in 2020, Colorado’s Fires In the Distance released their killer debut, Echoes of Deep November, a more melodic take on death/doom with some very nicely done orchestral arrangements from guitarist Yegor Savon.

Well on the all-important second album, Savon called in some additional help with some of the arrangements with Randy Slaugh (who has helped out with some string arrangements on The Devin Townsend Project and Unearth) and Mac Christensen, whom I could find nothing else about. As well as a full-string quartet.  to render those arrangements. And boy does it show.

Savon and co were no slouches, but Air Not Meant For Us, is exponentially better from start to finish than the debut. And not just because of the heavily increased string/orchestral/piano use, which adds some absolutely gorgeous atmosphere to some already brilliant melodic/melancholic death/doom. Everything has been upped: the songwriting, the vocals and the absolutely massive production are also beefed up.

Opener “Harbingers” immediately delivers the goods and shows off the new orchestral elements with some stellar, stirring strings and piano backing the steady lumber. And the gorgeous little piano refrain that arises around 4 and 7 minutes in, is simply wondrous. It sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the album.

Luckily, the next few songs are up to the task. “Wisdom of the Falling Leaves” opens with a somber cello, before a thunderous, more urgent Insomnium-styled gait and a melancholic/melodic riff to die for.  Again, a couple of lovely string refrains break up the hefty lope with killer results.

“Crumbling Pillars of Tranquillity” brings a more tampered doomy plod, but then there is a bit of an anomaly for me with “Adrift, Beneath the Listless Waves”, which is an instrumental number. I never really cared for instrumentals, but “Adrift” is utterly and knee-wiltingly perfect. With a chord progression similar to John Murphy’s “Adagio on D Minor” from the Sunshine movie, but with added strings and piano, it gets you right in the gut.

The next two songs have the tall order of following up basically 5 perfect melodic doom-death songs as “Psalm of the Merciless” is a pretty standard death/doom mope, but closer “Idiopathic Despair” almost recreates the brilliance of the album’s lead-off tracks, with an Insomnium vibe again, but still flocked in the album’s amazing string and piano work.

With Air Not Meant For Us, Fires in the Distance has catapulted itself into elite status with a second album that most bands dream of, and is going to be in the conversation for album of the year at a lot of publications I imagine. Definitely this one.

One could be forgiven for listening to the intro track of Fires in the Distance’s debut album, Echoes from Deep November, and mistake it for a symphonic black metal affair. However, this feeling does not last long. You’ll very quickly discover why they have been called “melodic death doom.”

The opening track, “The Climb,” opens with keyboards, but, as mentioned above, does not take long, a minute-and-a-half in fact, to eliminate those symphonic black metal vibes. This is when the vocals kick in and one familiar with the sub-genre is immediately thinking; “Oh, yeah, right…” When this happens, the riff kicks in and the keyboards phase out, which is difficult to notice at first. About 3 minutes in, we go back to keyboards, but that doesn’t last long, either. So far, this is death doom, but they have quite a love affair with those keys. It’s not the weirdest love affair ever, though. Just ask Jeffrey Dahmer and his lobotomized sex zombies (new punk band name: I called it!).

The centerpiece of the album is, in my opinion (which is always correct), track 3, “The Lock and the Key.” The interplay between riffing and keyboards is masterful. At over 8 minutes, it’s lengthy, but the keyboard backbone of the track does a fine job of keeping it interesting. There are moments where the keys drop out, but for the most part, they are the background of this heavy track.

I wanted to mention one more track before I make like a good fuck boy and wrap it up. This is going to be track 5 of 6, called “Chained to the Earth.” At a little over 6 minutes, it begins with a drum beat and keys backing it up, before going into the keys backing up the riffing. The keys here are a little different because, while they are in the background, they also tend to stand alongside the riffing and vocals when all are going at the same time. Around 3 minutes in, the skins are being bashed (not that kind) with some keys sprinkled on top like a tasty metal sandwich. After that, the lead guitar takes on a prominent role before crashing back into the sublime main riff, which takes the song to its conclusion, leading into the final, keyboard heavy instrumental.

Masterpiece? Not quite. Enjoyable? Absolutely. What the gentlemen in Fires in the Distance have accomplished here is on the verge of special. I struggled mightily coming up with a frame of reference for the album. The one which comes to mind is last year’s effort from The Drowning. Perhaps there are other examples of the genre which lie closer to Echoes from Deep November, but if so, I have yet to hear them. Of course, this album is far more keyboard driven. I’ve listened to this album more times than I can count and while I do enjoy what’s on display here, I do admit I start to zone out quite a bit because the variety of doomy riffs/keyboard interplay also becomes the formula. It can be expected in every track. I will continue to be quite high on the performance here, but hope for a little more variety next time, perhaps in the vocal and keys departments.