Intimacy is the second release from this Floridan band and it’s a monster. Light Yourself on Fire formed in 2003 and Intimacy was released earlier this year as the debut full length.

I guess this music could broadly be classified as death-core and before you throw your hands up to the sky in despair, allow me to explain. This is death-core in the truest sense of the word. Imagine Coalesce or even Converge and those big fat dirty grooves. Now imagine those grooves being run through a Tampa, Florida death metal grinder. The songs are all mid paced and complete groove monsters and if either of those sounds rock your boat then this band is going to be right up your alley.

The album is short at just over 17 minutes and 6 songs and the band rely on movie samples quite heavily to get their point of view across to the listener. Again though, while the idea of using film sample is clichéd in extreme music, the method employed by the band is top class. Case in point is opener New Baby Girl which starts with a spoken word sample as the music slowly builds behind it before exploding into a kickass opening groove as the sample recedes into the background. Great stuff. Five Blows has a staggered groove that will make you want to jump around. I can imagine these songs just ruling in a live setting. Montag is a short instrumental where the samples play out against a backdrop of almost gentle guitars.

The only real complaint that I have with Intimacy is that at 17 minutes it’s too damn short. Light Yourself on Fire left me wanting more and wishing for a proper 35 minute full length. I guess that’s a good thing at the end of the day and this is a band to definitely keep an eye on.

Label - Seventh Rule
Year of Release - 2008