Fire!, Stephen O'Malley, David Sandström

On the tail of their album ‘Defeat’ (2021), Fire!’s Mats Gustafsson, Andreas Werlin, and Johan Berthling channel the sounds of a wounded elk and burning churches in ‘Requies’, a climactic 21 minute transition from death knells to motorik post-punk. The sort of piece that knows no chill, it kicks off with a descending pall of church bells and Gustafsson’s animalistic sax over guitar drones stretched out to a scorched horizon. Gloaming electronics open out the space with cavernous choral layers and shell-rattle percussion ratcheting the tension to a sort of sepulchral BM feel until he drums lock in with alarmed organ to a tempestuous finale, with O’Malley shredding over the trio engine of Werliin and Sandström’s drums plus Berthling’s revving death rock bass. Exhausted, it all comes to collapse in glorious style leaving you with the feeling orks are about to beat on your door.