Denver’s Victim of Fire has been around since 2016, and this is their third album. They describe themselves as ‘Stadium Crust’, whatever that is.

But what I’m hearing is an utterly nostalgic throwback to the early second wave of metalcore, when Maiden, At The Gates, and dual guitar licks were creeping in as a primary influence. I’m talking At War With Shadows, Undying, As Hope Dies (I get a really strong “Legions Bow to a Faceless God” vibe), Tragedy, early, early Light This City, Unearth, and Darkest Hour, Hamartia, and even some 00s melodic hardcore akin to Killing the Dream or Have Heart. This isn’t polished, cleaner Killswith Engage-type metalcore. This is much more raw and ferocious.

And it fucking rules.

The Old Lie is a furious 37 minutes of raw, feral, blackened metalcore/crust. The pace is pretty similar from track to track, with a viciously energetic gait, as the drums keep a steady gallop for the most part, even with a few interludes and intros here and there.

The vocals are black-ish metal shrieks, no singing or croons. And the songs are simple, yet visceral, with a power cord and solo-laden stabs of melodic fury. And while the majority of the material is the same frenetically melodic hack’n’slash as heard on absolute rippers like “The Old Lie”, “Apocalyptic Inclination”, “Soldiers Dream”, “Wayward Light”, “Nightmares of Ceasefire”, and “Discordance”, they do add some cool leads on the likes of “Front Towards Enemy” and even some atmospherics for the seven minute penultimate track “Disharmonist”.

The album ends with a fucking riotous cover of Iron Maiden‘s “Aces High”.  And while the song has been covered to death, this one has to be one of my recent favorites, giving the tune a slight speed up and nastiness, but still recreating the glory and Steve Harris twang of the original, ending a fucking killer album on a fucking killer high note.