The Summary Judgment Reviews:
Title: When Fires Breed Blood
Artist: Noctuary
Label: Lost Disciple Records
Release Date: 11/21/00

Rating: 4 Skulls
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    • Submitted by Famine (1/11/01):
    This is a very ambitious album. Ambitious, indeed, for an American black metal band. And you know what? Noctuary pulls it off in grand fashion. When Fires Breed Blood takes a warm, airy and bare-bones production (think old Mercyful Fate) and combines it with a wide variety of metal styles to create a very diverse and epic piece of work. Of course, the album includes traditional blackened single note picking, blast beats and vicious screams, but it also includes sounds reminiscent of vintage Maiden (melodic guitar work), early Megadeth (old school thrash riffs) and Vol. 4 - era Black Sabbath (spacey doom jams). The diverse musical parts are held together by unique segues in the form of flamenco guitar work, acoustic parts and classical piano interludes. Brutal yet sophisticated. And the leads rip.

    When Fires Breed Blood is an eight song concept album broken down into five chapters. In 37 minutes and 50 seconds, a tale unfolds about a great war against organized religion in which the gods of sheep are eliminated. Usually, short albums disappoint me (Reign In Blood is a notable exception), but it as if this one makes up for the short playing time with depth of scope. I was surprised, in fact, to discover how short the album was after hearing it about a dozen times.

    Although Noctuary has really hit on something here, there is room for improvement. The production sound is perfect, but the technique is a little rough at times and the transitions between various parts often suffer. By the same token, these complex soundscapes would benefit from a smoother structure. The songs simply don't flow from one to the next as they deserve to. There is little difference, but somehow a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is better than a candy bar with peanut butter smeared on it. What? But it is just this bit of polish that keeps Noctuary from standing toe to toe with epic metal masters like Opeth and Swano-era Edge of Sanity.

    Nitpicking aside, I haven't been this excited about a black metal album since I got my hands on Nokturnal Mortum's NeChrist. I hope I get a chance to see these guys pull this off live and I will be anxiously awaiting the next album.
    4 out of 5

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