Rush on Rock review for Running Out of Daylight
And so to this week's tantalising taste of epic progressive doom metal. Right from the off The Living Fields appear to be on an utterly mad mission to toss in as many rock and metal conventions as possible into one album.
Opener Remnant is a recipe for instant success (or confusion) — ingredients include folk metal, strings, trad metal, chanting, progressive tendencies and classic rock. Sounds crazy? It is.
The battle metal intro to Perseverance wouldn't sound out of place on an early Turisas record but no sooner have you been lulled into a false sense of Viking-tinted security than The Living Fields pay homage to prog with a metal nod to Yes. Giving themselves more than eight minutes to craft another wacky genre-mash of music, you can almost sense the mischievous smirks on the faces of the Chicago crew — confounding the pigeon-holers and taste makers seems to be the primary purpose of this 'mad as a box of frogs' album.
If you ever wondered what epic progressive doom metal really is then Running Out Of Daylight offers few answers. In fact this abstract record simply throws up a myriad of questions relating to what constitutes a metal album in 2011. The Living Fields have successfully produced a template for sheer audacity but whether this ambitious and, at times, outrageous release will secure longevity or simply inspire notoriety remains to be seen.
Any band that calls itself metal only to roll out the three-minute folk-friendly acoustica of When The Walls Go Up — imagine Clannad-era Robin Hood — deserves a pat on the back. But is this brilliance bordering on the foolhardy? Only time will tell.
Grade: 9/10
Simon Rushworth, Rush on Rock