A Dozen Furies A Concept from Fire (2005) Sanctuary / Divine

A Dozen Furies' claim to fame is winning the reality show, "Battle for Ozzfest," which seems to be their main advertising point (like Manntis’s ads as well). A Concept from Fire is the followup to their self-released debut, Rip the Stars Down. Unlike their debut, A Concept from Fire is a metalcore CD, as their previous outing was a mix of post-hardcore and screamocore.

A Concept is way above anything else produced by the other bands featured on the show, though the disc’s standout track is “Into Another Life,” which sounds like nothing else on the album. It is driven by a technical, melodic death metal solo at the beginning and end performed by D. Braxton Henry.

The rest of the album is your typical metalcore release, with a few songs being heavier ("Nightmare of a Martyr") and some songs being sung for the most part ("Lost in a Fantasy"). A Dozen Furies make up for the predictability on tracks like “Awake and Lifeless” and “An Idea and Some Rope,” when the choruses are slightly catchy and the guitar work is above the standard metalcore same old, same old. But on tracks like “138,” they seem to be going through the motions. The good thing is that they manage to stay above the generic side of the genre, but they still can’t create their own sound, which hinders the disc slightly. The design of the album is excellent with a really nice picture and a solid color scheme, though I wish they had added the lyrics in the CD booklet.

In the end, A Concept from Fire is a solid metalcore album with a lot of potential. If A Dozen Furies runs with what they got, they should be able to launch themselves into the higher echelon of metalcore. A solid full-length that has me interested in their future releases.

(crazytoledo)