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Open Fire is an Italian deathcore band formed in 2001 who have so far released one EP. Sipario di Notte Vestito is their first full-length album.
The concept behind the album is very interesting. It is about showing the dark side of human feelings, particularly hypocrisy, pain, anguish and uneasiness. The albums is split into three acts, each introduced with its own defining track. Unfortunately the concept is far more interesting than the actual music which is all very similar sounding throughout with no real differences to portray any of the emotions.
Some of the riffs on this album are extremely good and will get your head rocking back and forth. The guitars have a good bite but are otherwise typical of modern sounding 'core' bands with no real technical prowess on show which leads to the album sounding very samey. The drums and bass provide a solid yet unremarkable foundation for the rest of the band to build on but generally the album is driven by the guitars and vocals.
Vocally Torre has an impressive growl that I could imagine being put to good use in a Gothenburg-style melodic death metal band. Unfortunately he also attempts to sing cleanly and this is where this album really loses any interest for me. In fact, it is the clean vocals that pretty much ruin this album completely. They are typical of the 'core' subgenres; whiny, grating and completely devoid of any of the emotion they're supposed to portray. You've probably heard this sort of thing a thousand times before in pretty much any band championed by the likes of Kerrang! for the last ten years. It is a shame that the clean style is utilized so much as without them the album would at least be listenable. As it stands the clean vocals overshadow any good points this band has to offer.
This album may appeal to die-hard fans of deathcore, but for me this album has almost no interest at all. I also really wish people would learn the difference between deathcore and death metal when describing bands...
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