Facing Fire – “Facing Fire” (Pavement)

Facing Fire hearkens back to the glory days of nu-metal – downtuned guitars, heavy jams, soaring hooks and emotion to spare. “Dying Inside” is a fiery anthem that checks all the boxes (‘raise your fists and fight the hatred inside that’s killing your life’ frontman Scott Artis decries), a tune reminiscent of Somewhere In Between-era Systematic. Facing Fire slow things down on “Filthy Life” thanks to some sludgy riffs and “Overcome” is another defiant anthem thanks to lines like ‘I feel alive, you can’t hold me down too long, I realize that I’m not the only one, this life is mine to make of it what I want and I will fight, I’ll rise up and overcome.’ Closing track “Fake” brings Facing Fire full circle with more of the same chugging nu-metal sounds that got things started. It’s only four tracks, but Facing Fire makes them all count.   

Go Download: “Dying Inside”