It seems no matter what kind of metal they pedal my way, Dying Victims Productions seldomly swings and misses. When Teutonic hard and heavy mercenaries Firmament dropped their debut album, We Don’t Rise We Just Fall, in 2023, the label didn’t just hit a homerun, but a grand slam of grandiose proportions. Upon first listen, I knew this band had a bright future ahead of them, and looked forward to whatever the future held in store. After all, there was no way this vehicle would be a one and done like the traditional metal act that proceeded them, Tension, right? Right!
Ladies and gentlemen, Firmament have flown back to this sphere with their sophomore album, For Centuries Alive, and when I brand it as “more of the same”, I mean it in the most complimentary way imaginable. With this album, Firmament comfortably affirms their spot in the rising ’70s meets ’80s hard and heavy revival, alongside bands like Freeways, Wytch Hazel, Flight, and so forth. Much like We Don’t Rise before it, For Centuries Alive is dominated by intelligent lyricism, cerebral riffage, intricate melodies, and a warm old school production. In other words, it is a total musical time warp.
The album starts out on the heavy side of the “hard and heavy” equation, bursting out of the gate with a slab of explosive NWOBHM worship in “Pulsar”: A rager that gives off serious Angel Witch and Di’Anno era Maiden vibes. The bombastic Manilla Road leanings of “A Legend of the Fall” keeps the heaviness going, as does the light meets darkness heft of “Swear by the Moon”. If there is a primary difference between For Centuries Alive and We Don’t Rise, it’s that the songwriting seems to have taken a more epic direction, or at least the renewed confidence gives the impression of such.
It isn’t until “An Anthem for the Spotless Mind” that we get a steady glimpse of the band’s hard side, the song’s balance of gallop riffs with breezy atmosphere sounding like if Wishbone Ash had ever hopped upon the NWOBHM bandwagon (It’s too bad they didn’t). “Brother of Sleep” goes neck and neck with Pagan Altar’s “Saints and Sinners” for the title of Heep metal song of the year, while the brash “Starbeast” is a muscular showcase in heavy rock raging. “Into the Realm of Distant Wonders” sees the band dipping their toes into the classic hard rock pool even further, those mesmeric BÖC vibes shining ever brightly, before “The Empress and the Foundling” fuses the heavy, hard, and epic influences into one colossal closer.
Much like We Don’t Rise before it, For Centuries Alive is another freakishly strong offering of hard and heavy nostalgia rockin’. One listen is bound to transport you to the fields of Reading circa 1980, decked out in your finest patch jacket and with a mustache upon your face, sipping a cold one as you eagerly await the likes of Maiden, Samson, and Rory Gallagher. All this, mind you, courtesy of a band of Germans! To that, I raise my stein and approvingly shout, “Prost!”
7 out of 10
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
For fans of: Wytch Hazel, Freeways, Manilla Road