FIGHTS AND FIRES
PROOF THAT GHOSTS EXIST
2011
LOCKJAW RECORDS
Fights And Fires are, without a doubt, one of THE hardest working and hardest touring bands in the country. And on ‘Proof That Ghosts Exist’, they’ve literally squeezed everything they’ve seen, done, heard & played on their essentially never ending tour onto the eleven tracks.
Although only their first full length, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s an album from long-time veterans, which it sort of is. it’s filled with the quality and confidence of a band that know their shit, and that have, regardless of releases, been around the block more times than you can count.
Like most of Lockjaw’s releases, this is an album that teeters on many an edge, unashamedly teasing you with the poppiest of pop-punk melodies on tracks like “Shake It” and “Fan The Flames”, while keeping it cynical and hardcore on tracks like one minute opener “Testaments” & “You Can’t Say Slags On The Radio”. The latter of which purveying the kind of our morals have gone to shit but I don’t really care’cause it’s kind of fun mentality you’d expect from the likes of Mike Skinner & Co.
Guaranteed crowd-pleasers wherever they play, Fights And Fires have honed a perfect example of everything they do on the road, and an album that sounds, in the best way possible, like it’s been tweaked, prepped, teased and slaved over for many a night, getting it just so, yet sounding every bit as spontaneous and manic as their onstage antics.
Not only a jewel in the crown of Lockjaw Records, but of the UK hardcore scene full stop, F&F should be high up on your list of ‘Bands I Have To See This Year’, if, indeed, you’ve missed them the 200 other times they played in your town.
