Sunday 7 April 2019

EnFire ~ JUNIPER LANDING ..... review


New Zealand's underground rock scene may not be the biggest but that does not mean we should ignore it in favour of music from more prolific countries. NZ bands such as Beastwars, Mothra and Arc of Ascent have been turning out consistently excellent underground rock for some time now and have garnered interest not only from the rock press of their home country but also from further afield. Today Desert Psychlist are pointing our calloused fingers in the direction of a trio from Christchurch going by the name EnFire, a stoner doom outfit consisting of Nik "The Woods" Ward (drums), Dave Van Eerden (bass) and Cameron Taylor (guitars/vocals) who have recently released their debut album "Juniper Landing"

We did describe EnFire as "stoner doom" in this reviews opening piece but to be honest that is not strictly true, yes there is plenty of stonerized doom to be found on "Juniper Landing" but there are also elements drawn from the full spectrum of the underground rock scale, we are talking everything from swampy sludge to spacey garage psych here. Crunching downtuned guitar riffage, grizzled low slung bass and a bombardment of percussion are EnFire's tools of trade and they wield them with unerring levels of skill and aptitude, the band utilising a blend of clean and harsh vocal tones to add the finishing touches to their dark, dank musical constructs. From opening track "Dark Dungeon", with its droning fed back intro and dark throbbing proto -doomic groove, through to the excellent cover of Haunted's "Silvercomb" that closes the album (featuring Moonflower's Nicole Schaap on vocals and Josh Fairless on guitar) EnFire never miss a chance to dazzle, delight and entertain their listeners with their relentlessness and drive the band only dropping below incendiary for the excellent trippy and Planet Caravan-esque "Goodbye, You Great Fool", the song a moment of calm in an otherwise gloriously chaotic onslaught.

Unruly and anarchic would be a good way to describe the grooves EnFire bring to the feast with "Juniper Landing", there is an underlying sense of turmoil and disarray prevalent throughout the albums eleven tracks that sees the band walking a precarious razor edge width between discord and harmony, an edge that, to their credit, they manage to negotiate with consummate ease.
Check it out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

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