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    "All Consuming Fire" - Musical analysis 1#

    Metal music has always seemed to catch my attention in many different ways. Going simply from secular rap to Christian metal was a huge jump in genre but I've never been more thankful I found metal music. One band that I hold dear to my heart is called War of Ages. There song 'All Consuming Fire' is one of my all-time favorite songs because of the nasty pinch harmonics and lyrics. Relating to the lyrics in the song makes the experience of listening so much more personal. Many people gave the album, with All Consuming Fire one of their favorite songs, a 3 to 3.5 out of 5 overall. The song was released in 2008 by the Band War of Ages from Erie, Pennsylvania.  


War Of Ages - All Consuming Fire - YouTube





Lyrics

The intense lyrics in 'All Consuming Fire' truly enhance the songs enjoyability. A staff review member at Review: War of Ages - Arise and Conquer | Sputnikmusic said "Containing no clean vocals other than the spoken sections, the energetic album is everything it needs to be." This comment on the overall album truly does describe the lyrical flow from Leroy Hamp. We learn the song is about the singer asking God to ignite the fire in his heart to live for Christ when he says," All-consuming fire burn, flow through my veins." The screaming is perfectly in line with the BPM of the song. I personally love the lyrics sense of humility by the singer putting himself before God. 

Chords

    To truly make this a metal song, the guitarists use heavy down picking on open E string to provide the fast pace, nasty sounding distortion. There is not much strumming compared to the individual note picking. The chorus mainly consisted of three chords being strummed in a continuous pattern. This really amplified the bands attempt to create some sort of emphasis aside from the solo riffs being played. Though, to fill in spots in the song the guitarist tremolo pick to add a nice pace tone to the song. I love the upbeat pace of the song which really creates the classic heavy metal tone. 

 Beat

    The song uses 190 BPM in the C tuning to truly created an upbeat metal song. Around the two-minute mark of the song you can clearly hear the intense double kick percussion and guitar riff playing quickly. The reviewer on Review: War of Ages - Arise and Conquer | Sputnikmusic said,". At times it's very aggressive and thought provoking, and sometimes it's catchy and melodic, but always executed well." I completely agree that the energetic kick from the guitar riff and double percussion really harmonize with the screams from the singer. The beat does change in the chorus but that provides a good variety of different tones and pace to the song. The quick beat can be a symbol of the singers burning desire to constantly want to know God more in the lyrics. 


Sources 

Review: War of Ages - Arise and Conquer | Sputnikmusic

Find the BPM and key for any song | Every song, every tempo | SongBPM | songbpm.com



Comments

  1. Soren LarsenFebruary 12, 2023 at 11:38 PM

    It's been a while since I've heard of a heavy metal Christian song. Using the music to convey the intensity of an all consuming fire makes a lot of sense, and I would agree that the lyrics convey that. It reminds me of some of the old P.O.D. or Thousand Foot Krutch style music. I'm not sure how thought provoking it was for me though, since I have a hard time thinking through the music, but good on you if this is what gets you thinking about God. I do like the parallels between the intensity of the subject matter and the music though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kellen DavisFebruary 14, 2023 at 1:51 AM

    I didn't had much experience listening to metal but after listening to this song I can definitely see the appeal. The screaming vocals paired with the epic guitar riffs gave the song intensity and purpose for the duration of the listen. I'll definitely be checking more music in this genre.

    ReplyDelete

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