Light The Fire

Cover

Artist: Infernal Death
Released by: Evil Angel Records
Release Date: 2008-04-14
Review: Wonderful (19)

The band's second album was a massive turning point in style and direction. The idea to write a concept record centred around a fictional world war was an idea born out of conversations betweem both Dean and Danny. Neil, not being a songwriter at the time, would provide some input in the latter stages of development. The finished product was a leap in sound and skill for the group as a whole and was well received by the critics as an overall wonderful album.

The main change for Danny was him finding a comfort zone in his style. His tracks all came from traditional metal roots and provided a lot of consistency and order to the package as a whole. Dean meanwhile, was still struggling to find his own comfort zone writing tunes from a wide ranging spectrum from the traditional beats of “22 April 1915” to the dreading, dark doom metal track “Trenches of Blood”. His earliest contribution was “You Left Me Burning”, and it shows, being the least polished of the tracks on the album both lyrically and melody wise.

During the writing process for the album, Danny approached Neil to see if he was going to be interested in providing some of his own material this time around. At the time, he still did not feel comfortable enough in the writing process to provide it himself, but expressed an idea for a song to Danny that later became “9:04 AM” based on the concept that Neil had. In the end, Danny provided five tracks, including the collaboration and Dean contributed four tracks to the record.

The record was primarily recorded at Gunsmoke! Records in Toronto. Two tracks were recorded while the band was touring in Amsterdam at BAD BOYZ • Amsterdam. Danny Harris produced the record, except for a single track. Dean's “Crimson Bayonets” was produced by Majorie Jovanovic, with stellar results.

The band also included a short film DVD with the album that was the story of the record with the soundtrack playing behind it. Fans were delighted at the extra bonus product provided at no additional cost. The band's stage show for the World War Tour also included this DVD being projected onto giant screens throughout the venues during the playback of tracks from the record.

The cover was designed by Danny and shows several allied soldiers looking at one of their fallen in a bomb shell created crater on one of the many muddied battlefields of the war. The picture is manipulated via a lense to give it a slightly aged look.

The Black Hand Comes (The Shots Heard Around The World)

“In the latter years of the 19th century a shift in beliefs and the rise of nationalism would change the world in ways people could never imagine. The events that followed could possibly have been stopped, but the architects of these events knew that no one would be willing.”

And thus began The Great War. The spoken word intros to the songs were an interesting way to get the story told, although some critics argued it disrupted the flow of the record from song to song.

The Black Hand was a secret society founded in Serbia in 1911. They were part of a greater Slavist movement to reunite territories that were annexed by the Autria-Hungary. The members of the Black Hand formed a plan to assassinate the Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand. With his assassination, the pieces that were already in place due to political unrest and upheaval fell into place and began what would eventually be called World War One. Essentially, the gun shots that killed the Archduke were ”…the shots heard around the world”.

The Triple Alliance, The Triple Entente

“With the assassination of the Archduke in Serbia, the dominoes fell into place. By August 1st of 1914, the great powers of Europe were now at war. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, which by treaty drew in the Russian and French empires, which in turn brought in Germany. With Germany’s decision to invade the west through Belgium, Great Britain would join the fray.”

Most of the worlds greatest powers were drawn into the combat with two main alliances forming on each side called the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. While the names of the combatants would indicate that they consisted solely of three countries, in reality, they contained many more than that. They were named after the key players in each, which consisted of three main nations for both. The Entente had Russia, Great Britain and France, while the Alliance had Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

Many other nations would enter the war before it ended, including nations not in Europe, such as the United States of America and British colonies such as Australia and Canada.

Trenches Of Blood

“Warfare on such a grand scale the world had not seen. Much of the European landscape would be turned into muddy, wet, crater filled fields of blood, sweat and tears. Opposing forces dug in sometimes as close a mere stone throws away in trenches dug from the earth the fought for. The battles, long, brutal and deadly, with men leaving the relative safety of their own trenches to be gunned down in hails of bullets as they crest over the top of their trenches of blood…”

Dean's opening track on the record was the dark, brooding, somber tale of the trench warfare of the day. The down tuned guitars and Dean's use of large kettle drums with Neil's trudging bass line give the track a powerful feel.

The main style of combat in the war was trench warfare. Essentially, forces would be contained in static lines, often dug in trenches, which would provide cover against small arms and artillery. To gain ground or achieve objectives, combatants would await a signal to climb from the safety of the trenches (known as going “over the top”) and charge the enemy lines while they are still dug in themselves. Tens of thousands of soldiers would give their lives only to gain meters in actual territory. Campaigns would last months with little or no change in the field of combat, except for more blood on the ground.

22 April 1915

“The battle field was a mud caked, crater filled death trap, but at least it was quiet this day. The men huddled in the trenches, bundled in their coats and tried to stay warm. No attack was scheduled today in the second battle at Ypres. Suddenly, lookouts across the line started to raise the alarm. Was it a line of German forces approaching? No. A sickly cloud of yellow-green gas, carried by the soft breeze was crossing the field of battle.”

War always brings out the worst in mankind's ability to find ways of killing each other, and the worlds greatest conflict to date was no different. On April 22nd, 1915, German forces would use chlorine gas against the French, Canadian and Algerian troops during the second battle of Ypres. While not the first nation to deploy chemical weapons, Germany was the first to deploy them full-scale on the battlefield. Their effectiveness in these battles was limited in scope in regards to the numbers of deaths they caused, however, they were effective in causing heavy casualties in terms of wounded and panic amongst the forces.

The track, while carrying a strong message, is one of the weaker tracks, lyrically and musically on the album, only better than “You Left Me Burning”.

You Left Me Burning

“The soldier lay dying in the field hospital, his lips plum coloured, his throat burning. The doctors could do nothing to save the soldiers life from the effects of the gas.”

An instrumental track from Dean, the weakest of the record, yet still able to invoke the images of the dying soldiers lying in the field hospitals after the gas attack at Ypres. Soldiers would effectively asphyxiate on the chlorine gas. There was no way to save them once they breathed in too much. They lay, dying, with no hope.

Anthem For A Nation

“An untested nation, born only decades before, would cut their teeth upon an enemy that would not be beaten. The blood of many before would soak the hill at Vimy Ridge before those three fateful days in the spring of 1917. Following a week of constant bombardment, the men of the young nation of Canada, would rise above all and take the hill from their enemy, paying in blood, but defining their nation forever.”

Danny was very keen to give a very Canadian edge to the record. Canada's role in the conflict would be well documented in this song and 9:04 AM. This anthem was a crowd favourite on the Canadian cities during touring of course. Invoking strong patriotic images, the song tells the tale of Canada's first real test on the field of battle as an independent nation. The men trained long and hard in Canada on a constructed field of battle that replicated what they would face overseas. Along with a fresh tactic called the creeping barrage they took a hill that no other allied army was able to take, and did it in only three days.

9:04 AM

“December 6th, 1917, at 8:40 in the morning, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with munitions, collided with a Norwegian cargo ship in the harbour of Halifax. Ten minutes afterward, a fire broke out and at 9:04 am in the morning it exploded. Two square kilometers were wiped out with 2,000 dead and over 9,000 injured. Halifax would persevere showing our indelible Canadian spirit.”

Neil's idea of a song detailing how Canada itself was effected on the home front from a war many thousands of kilometers away was an idea Danny couldn't and wouldn't pass up. 9:04 AM became a solid haunting ballad of a city on Canada's east coast that dealt with a disaster that no one could see coming. Danny decided not to write many words for the song. He wanted to try and use powerful language and let the listener develop the image themselves. The haunting guitar work coupled with Neil's rolling bass lines worked well in coming up with a melody that provided a foreboding atmosphere.

Crimson Bayonets

“The eastern front was as ominous and deadly. Russian soldiers charging, bayonets fixed into the Austrian lines over and over again, blood staining their pointed blades. The Empire of Russia would lose more men than any other country in the war, and the Tsar and Tsarina would pay the price.”

Another Dean composition, the rough, deep growling lyrics were compounded by Dean's heavy tom-tom drum line and marching beat, which he tried to use to allow the listener to hear the men marching across the lines. Neil wasn't a big fan of singing this kind of track as the vocal style Dean went with is quite hard on the voice box. Still, a strong melody allowed this track to be released as a single and sell relatively well.

Armistice

“The powers of the Alliance were fighting the fight well into 1918, but with the United States of America entering the fray and the Alliance suffering defeats, the tide was turning. Unrest in the Alliance nations would ultimately lead to much change and an eventual end to hostilities in the latter portions of 1919. Ten million dead, twenty-one million wounded, over seven million missing – a terrible price had been paid.”

The final track was an ode to the last man killed during the conflict. George Lawrence Price's story is a sad one. He was killed by a German sniper one minute before the armistice was to take effect at 10:59 A.M. after his unit crossed the Canal du Centre into the village of Ville-Sur-Haine. They attempted to capture or kill the German machine gun which fired at them as they crossed and in the process, Private George Lawrence Price was shot and killed by the sniper.

Danny's melody is a soft entry, with harmonies and a military drum line. Slowly it builds up to the long instrumental section after the final lyrics are sung and the band plays the song out, traditionally with many of the national flags fluttering over the stage.

“Many bands use the final track as a throw away, a place to put what many considered the low end of the records, but when you are telling a story, especially like this, the final track turns into one of the most important,” Neil has been quoted as saying.

“The final tune had to be the heavy hitter, the biggest impact, the one song that let the fans really envision the horrors of the war and how senseless it could be,” Danny says. “Really, dying a minute before the armistice is a horrible letter for a parent to receive.”

No chart history.