Artist: Girl On Fire
Album: Revenge EP
Genre: Alt-rock
Label: Hollywood Waste

I am a very seasonal man when it comes to many things, especially music, and I always look forward to fall. I despise winter, but I love feeling the air get a bit crisper, wearing a jacket again, and probably most importantly, not sweating all the time. It of course, also means that I get to bring out my fall music collection once again. I can go the entire year without listening to most of these bands even once, but this past weekend, it’s been starting to get a little chilly again, so I got to dust off this old collection, containing some of my favorite albums of all time. One of the most prominent bands of the bunch is A.F.I., for the most part, I feel no distinct urge to listen to them at any other point in the year, but once upon a time, they were my favorite band by a large margin. I still have every album, b-side, and cover they have done – aside from their newest album, of course – sitting on my itunes, just waiting for the leaves to start changing. In fact, just today, I took the motorcycle out on a ride, just so I could listen to The Art Of Drowning. Which is why I thought the timing for the review of Girls On Fire’s new album, the Revenge EP, couldn’t have been better. They list A.F.I. as one of their main influences, and naturally, this made me think two things; first thought was, “Sweet.”, my second thought was, “That is quite a bold claim.” Not many bands can pull off saying that they sound like A.F.I., and not many bands make that claim anymore these days; which lead to the inevitable question, did they mean old A.F.I, the classic A.F.I. that everyone either loves, or used to love, or the newer stuff that takes a bit more effort to fall in love with.

For whatever reason, I suppose I just sort of assumed that Girl On Fire was citing the old A.F.I. sound, no idea why, in fact it made more sense that they would be talking about the new stuff, but I guess that detail eluded me. It’s all for the best really, no one would really get into such a thing these days, what Girl On Fire is really saying, is that they’re shooting for a mainstream, alt-rock sound, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. What’s even more impressive, is that they’re building that sound from the ground up, they aren’t a band that has been manufactured by a record label, and conveniently placed at the top of the Billboard charts, they are actually working towards their goal. But at the same time, that is a limitation, the mainstream alt-rock scene isn’t what it used to be, and working up towards that goal from nothing is extremely difficult. That said, I can’t say I was sold on their sound off the bat, the opening track, “Revenge”, the title track, seemed just a bit too cheesy in any respect, the lyrics were a bit over the top, the instrumentals were trying too hard to be epic, it was all just a little too Linkin-Park-y. But the next track, “Tragic Ending” gave me a better idea of what the band was about, they aren’t trying to have a faux-sophisticated front to attract underground fans, they are trying to keep things simple, to appeal to a broad spectrum of fans, and in that sense, they’re doing a pretty decent job.

Girl On Fire may be reaching for a lofty goal with their Revenge EP, but their mainstream sensibility is definitely undeniable, Girl On Fire isn’t an underground band trying to appeal to a select niche of fans, they are an underground band working towards the mainstream, and while I was originally expecting the former, the latter is far from a bad thing. And in terms of mainstream alternative rock, the Revenge EP can give listeners a good taste of things to come for these guys, and where they very well could be headed. There is some room for improvement, for sure, but it isn’t every day that a mainstream band is built from nothing, so there are bound to be some kinks that need to be worked out. They are still working on finding that balance between broad appeal, and just a tad too cheesy, but they’re well on their way.

7/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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