Fires in the Distance Have Restored My Will to Live

Fires in the Distance may be the best Finnish melodeath band ever to emerge from Connecticut. On their debut album, Echoes From Deep November, the quartet offers up forty minutes of top-notch feel-good feel-bad music — epic, cinematic, beautiful, melancholy, and invigorating — that suggests a future touring with bands like Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum (assuming that, y’know, touring comes back someday).

High praise, to be sure, but the band has earned it — there’s not a weak moment on Echoes. The band originally intended to self-release the record before Prosthetic snapped it up. I don’t know if any other labels also threw their hats in the ring, but if not, they seriously screwed up. Echoes From Deep November is one of 2020’s most assured debuts, and very likely one of the year’s best metal records.

Do yourself a favor and stream Echoes From Deep November Below. You can purchase it here.