Taxer's Top 6.66 Albvms of the Year: Part 1 -- Burned and Died

Enforcer – Death by Fire



Back in 2012, this was by far my most anticipated album coming into 2013. Diamonds one of the best heavy metal releases in years and is definitely one of my top 50 albums. Death by Fire came out on February 1st, making it one of the first releases of the year that I listened to. My first listen, I was very disappointed. The riffing quality had certainly decreased and the songs felt more formulaic than the bands previous effort. This album felt lacking in riff department due to the departure of Adam Zaars, mainly known for his work with death metal acts Tribulation and Repugnant. Lead singer Olof Wikstrand took on guitar duties, and while he is equally as competent, it feels as if he should stick primarily with vocal duty.

The album opens up with Death Rides the Night and Run for your life. These two song let the listener know that they're listening to an Enforcer album. Both are energetic and catchy song, filled with quick dual guitar leads and punchy riffs. They also showcase Wikstrand's performance as a vocalist as he's hitting higher notes than he did in previous records. Mesmerized by Fire is the single off the album and is easily my favorite song from Death by Fire. This song has everything that makes Enforcer great. The guitar riffs are fun yet fierce. The chorus makes you want to sing along and the main riff just hooks you in and doesn't let you go. The song has two halves with the first half being focused more on drawing you in with a rocking chorus while the second half just punches you in the face with heavy metal attitude and solos for days. It comes full-circle ending with the main riff and is overall just the strongest track off the album. Take Me to Hell is a fun track but it's easily the cheesiest song off the album since it seems to be more heavily influenced by glam (especially the chorus) than speed metal badassery. Up next is the instrumental Crystal Suite. So far every Enforcer album has had an instrumental to show off shredding chops from both the guitarists and the bassist but this one is a bit different. It focuses more on showing off cool riffs than shredding; it sounds like it could have gone just as well with vocals. It's a pretty damn solid song if you're bored by noodling. Sacrificed is a solid track but it feels rather formulaic aside from the verse before the chorus. The solo is pretty rad though. Silent Hour/The Conjugation is probably the weakest track off the album because it's longer than it should be. While 6 and a half minutes is by no means long, but for this particular style of metal, each song shouldn't be longer than 4 minutes or so. There are great ideas presented, but it just feels like they could have either expanded them into more songs or cut them out. Satan is the closing track and boy is it good. Speed metal assault right off the bat—just as you would expect just from the title alone.

After multiple listens, the album grew on me. While I didn't get the awe that I was expecting coming into Death by Fire, each song offers a great performance by every member. This album is slightly geared more toward a glam metal style as opposed to the bands previous two efforts which were focused entirely on capturing the essence of “speed metal.” As mentioned earlier, Olof Wikstrand provides a great vocal performance as he has clearly grown in range. Both Wikstrand and Joseph Toll provide a great riffs and memorable melodies that any Enforcer fan would appreciate. Bassist Tobias Lindqvist is no slouch either as he clearly goes for those Sam Harris inspired bass lines rather than just copying what the guitars are doing. Oh and drummer Jonas Wikstrand does his stuff good too. Nothing too technically impressive but he understands the feel that the band is going for and follows through perfectly. Although it's not the best Enforcer album out there, it's a damn good release and is recommended for any fan of kickass heavy metal. 8/10



Bonus: boy butts for days.

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Taxer that was quite good. Downloading as we speak. I've been in the mood for speed lately and this fit the bill. Right now it's easy listening but I feel like it'll be a grower on me with time too.

Always a fan of the catchy stuff

+

At first I loved this album (I think I even mentioned it on the forum) but after repeated listens it wore a little thin with me...

... I haven't listened to it in a while so I might fire it up and give it a spin.

Despotic Reign wrote:

At first I loved this album (I think I even mentioned it on the forum) but after repeated listens it wore a little thin with me...

... I haven't listened to it in a while so I might fire it up and give it a spin.

I was quite the opposite because I didn't like it that much at first, but overtime it grew on me because I saw it for what it was as opposed to what I wanted it to be. It's a solid album, it's just that I wanted 2-3 more records of innovative and unique metal as opposed to another Enforcer album.