Photo by: Matthew Jackson
Official press release:
Connecticut melodic/melancholic death metal troupe Fires In The Distance will release their Circadian Promise full-length on June 12th via Prosthetic Records.
With their third album, the band has elevated their melancholy, synth-embroidered signature to cathartic new heights. Circadian Promise is virtuosic yet visceral, progressive but always authentic, confirming Fires In The Distance as rising genre standouts. Founding guitarist and songwriter Yegor Savonin said:
“Our music stems from raw feeling. Each new record depicts a different experience and time period in our lives, with which the sound and atmospherics evolve and reflect this as well.”
Originally conceived as a Savonin solo project in 2016, within four years, Fires In The Distance evolved into a full live band. Their acclaimed 2020 debut album for Prosthetic Records, Echoes From Deep November, was followed three years later by Air Not Meant For Us, a record that fused the band’s modern melodic death metal with elegantly orchestrated arrangements and rich storytelling.
Following a high-profile 2024 North American tour with Dark Tranquillity and Amorphis, Fires In The Distance reunited with longtime producer Dave Kaminsky and orchestration maestro Randy Slaugh (Tesseract, Devin Townsend) to craft Circadian Promise. Featuring new vocalist/guitarist Brendan Hayter, the album is without question Fires In The Distance’s bleakest and most embracing to date, constantly engaging and filler-free despite some of its six tracks running over nine minutes. Savonin explains:
“This album is a little bit darker than the others. It delves into the concept of spiritual death and losing your soul while still living and explores the existential concepts of accepting and coming to terms with and embracing the bleaker side of realities which we will all face at one point or another.”
As with their prior releases, Circadian Promise ruminates on mental health, existentialism in the form of mortality salience, and perseverance, but this time with a focus on accepting the inevitable (including aging and death – among the “circadian promises” of the title). Yet there’s a sense of optimism, albeit challenging, in its quest for solace through realism. Savonin continued:
“It comes down to acceptance, peace, and calm. Finding that balance in your own life and having the courage to keep going in the face of circumstances which could easily cause devastating effects on the perspective of what is still to come.”
Circadian Promise was recorded at the Power Station in Connecticut, and at Kaminsky’s Studio Wormwood in North Carolina. Thanks to the bass and drums being tracked together and Kaminsky’s unusually organic approach, the album retains a resonant human warmth even in its most technical and synthy sections. Hayter’s serrated growl bookends his somber, textured cleans, while hugely atmospheric strings and snaking, succulent leads convey Fires In The Distance’s cinematic sensibilities. There’s a sonic kinship with atmospheric metal peers like Swallow The Sun and Amorphis, but the appeal of Circadian Promise transcends genre parameters to include ornate, sepia-toned echoes of the likes of Paradise Lost and Type O Negative.
Grandiose, shape-shifting album opener and first single “Of Radiance and Levitation” gives fair warning of the epic opus ahead, Hayter taking the record and his new band by the throat from the off. Savonin recalls:
“That song came together after we came home from our tour with Dark Tranquillity and Amorphis. There’s a wave that you’re riding after a long tour like that, which eventually dissipates but serves as a breakthrough from living with depression – like peeking into what it’s like to be ‘normal.’”
Watch Fires In The Distance’s video for “Of Radiance and Levitation”, directed by Jayson Cessna, below. Stream the track here.
Circadian Promise will be released on CD, LP, and digitally. Find digital pre-orders HERE and physical preorders HERE.
With touring planned for 2026 and prominent opening slots the following year, Circadian Promise is bringing Fires In The Distance to whole new audiences while cementing the loyalty of its existing fervent following. The album continues the band’s decade of delivering catharsis through unfiltered snapshots of Savonin’s inner journey harnessed to relentless musicality, enthralling arrangements, and tasteful flashes of technicality.
Fans of The Man-Eating Tree, Exgenesis, Insomnium, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, Kaunis Kuolematon, Black Sun Aeon, Type O Negative, and the like, pay heed,
Circadian Promise track listing:
- “Of Radiance And Levitation”
- “To You, Author Of My Fade”
- “Lightless Days Of A Songless Bird”
- “By This Time Tomorrow”
- “Once The Silence Takes Your Place”
- “Agonal Dreaming”
