Kev Rowland It is always refreshing to come across bands that refuse to conform to any particular musical genre, and create their own path. Such is the case with British outfit Mouth of Swords, for whom the term progressive metal is really the only one that fits, not because they sound like what many people may view of as a prog metal act, but rather that they obviously have never read the rulebook, let alone ignored it. There are huge elements of djent and mathcore in what they are doing, and I already had Protest The Hero down as an obvious influence long before I realised that they had actually toured together. The Safety Fire draw from a large pool of influences, from bands they’ve always listened to such as Deftones, Tool and Alice In Chains to former tourmates such as Between The Buried And Me and Gojira among others.

This is brutal staccato music that is always twisting and moving in new directions, but always with incredible intensity. It is this over the top passion that almost knocks the listener back, such is the anger and directness of the music. It is as if they have decided to capture the emotion of the most over the top hardcore band they could find, and have then created complex and bewildering time signatures and riffs. Loud and raw, the note density is immense, and the tour with PTH must have been just incredible (please can both these bands come to New Zealand? Pretty please??).

This is never music that can be played in the background as it is too much in your face and in your ears. This is music that refuses to be ignored, and will crunch into your brain even as you are trying in brain to follow the musical structure. Sean McWeeney manages to keep his vocal melodies far simpler than what is going on beneath him, and this combined with the intensity provides a compelling musical statement. Songwriter Dez says “Being called a progressive band encapsulates the fact that we don’t do one thing. We think about prog in the experimental sense. We connect more with bands like Mastodon than Dream Theater, so that's how we relate to the word ‘progressive’ with our music.” Progressive, metallic, intense. www.insideoutmusic.com