Spitfire – Cult Fiction
Spitfire is a reformed high school metalcore band made up of two ex-members of Scarlet, one ex-member of Mae, and one current member of Norma Jean. That said, their new album, Cult Fiction, is essentially what you’d expect. A modern, composed-yet-chaotic take on metalcore, with a nice experimental edge. Out-of-breath, surprisingly clear vocals mixed high over chaotic guitars and drums, with slow, hypnotic interludes interspersed throughout. Lyrical themes come from a sort of vegan straight edge perspective (although I have no idea whether or not any of these guys actively identify as vegan or straight edge), especially on tracks like “Meth Monster,” which seems to be pretty explicitly about drug abuse, and “Meat Maker,” which seems to be about as explicitly anti-meat, although, while I would hardly call these guys a straight-up Christian band, the occasional Christian undertones to some songs, like “Pro-Life” and “Mother Earth in Labor” might turn a lot of vegan straight edgers off. This is a pretty political album, of course. For example “Track Marxist” is an anti-war song lamenting the “Teflon president left unscathed.” As for the sound, this band sounds good. The production has a nice polish to it, but not enough to distract from all the chaos going on.
So basically, this probably isn’t a band for everyone. If you’re a fan of Scarlet or Norma Jean, you’ll probably love this. I can’t imagine the average Mae fan being that into this, but their ex-guitarist is here, nonetheless. So if you feel like gettin’ all hardcore, here’s something you might dig. They’ve definitely nailed a good, unique metalcore sound (and given their other bands, that’s no surprise at all). If that’s good enough for you, you’ll love this. It’s just a matter of whether you want to hear what they have to say. These guys’ bands all have a pretty good-sized niche carved out for themselves, though, so I doubt that’ll be as much a problem for those kids as it is for a lot of more “traditional” hardcore kids. At the very least, you have to admire their convictions, whether or not you agree with them.
There are no tour dates available for these guys, and word on the street is they may or may not have broken up. A shame, since they’re probably one of the better metalcore bands I’ve heard recently. But you can always keep watching their MySpace page and hoping.