IAMFIRE

From Ashes

ELEVATION DENMARK Danish desert rockers mine an undertow of artiness How low can you go? Pretty damn low apparently, at least according the first bowelquaking tones of IAmFire’s debut. It’s the first immediate sign that these Danes are partial to a bit of Kyuss. By a large degree. Sketched from the blueprint left by the desert rock legends, complete with vocals that sound scarily like Garcia, From Ashes is all about the bass. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before but things start to get interesting when they take a turn towards Tool on tracks like My Mistake, Eyes Wide Open and Beamer, which experiment with off-kilter drum patters and languid vocals. Kyuss and Tool shouldn’t be natural bedfellows but IAmFire succeed in making it work. Taken whole, From Ashes is a dense drag of a record, made for skinning up and letting go, but peppered with flashes of a more modern interpretation of heavy psych. FOR FANS OF: KYUSS, ELECTRIC WIZARD, MONSTER MAGNET

HOLLY WRIGHT