Band: First Fragment
Song: “La Veuve & Le Martyr”
Album: Gloire Éternelle
Release Date: October 29th, 2021
Label: Unique Leader Records
Guitarist Phil Tougas explains:
“‘La Veuve & Le Martyr’ is one of our most varied songs and definitely not as neoclassical as our first single ‘Pantheum’. The Shrapnel Records artist roster from the 80s and 90s remains the band’s biggest source of inspiration.
The riffs feature a lot of twists and turns and some counterpoint once in a while, but the swing-down grooves are the most interesting part. They’re directly inspired by Greg Howe’s early records as well as Joey Tafolla’s 2nd solo album Infra-Blue. Just the first riff after the flamenco intro alone was basically me saying ‘Okay, what if I took the song ‘Dynamo’ by Obliveon, removed the open-string notes, added slap bass and it’s performed by Greg Howe and Tafolla if they did extreme metal.’ The harmonised solo right before the trade-off uses slides, plentiful whammy bar action and big-dick 80s wide-vibrato. You can literally dance to that solo.
In between it all, you also get one of the most aggressive vocals and most hyperactive drumming performances we’ve ever belted out. These 286 bpm blasts and 16th note double bass drum bursts may make you feel like someone is injecting crack straight to your heart when you hear them.”
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