Cleansed By Fire

***AVAILABLE ON BRONZE SHRAPNEL COLOURED VINYL LP

Mission To The Sun are a Detroit-based duo featuring Chrostopher Samuels from Ritual Howls and vocalist Kirill Slavin. ‘Cleansed By Fire’ blends ambient and post-industrial sounds and is seasoned with atmospheric vocals and dystopian lyrics inspired by writer J.G. Ballard. Cleansed by Fire takes the listener on a journey home to the inferno of the sun, navigating memories of a life lived, dissolved into time. A wind of desolation opens "Take Me Back," with Slavin mourning for a return home to a distant reality. The song uses repetition to build a somber ambience while maintaining a spaciousness sparsely accented by noise with care and precision. Slavin's lyrics examine the conflict and paradoxes that riddle the human condition with Samuel's instrumentation providing a fitting backdrop. "The Unbroken Sea" illustrates this symbiotic reflection with a propulsive bass line contradicted by ethereal synths that swell and contract, only to be finally engulfed by a pulsating crescendo of rhythmic noise at the end. The dystopian title track "Cleansed by Fire" marches steadily along to a creeping darkwave rhythm. The basic elements of dance music are there, yet the song remains devoid of danceability. Punctuated by lyrics inspired by J.G. Ballard and technological isolation, a glimmer of pop sensibility can be found beneath the haze of the track's potent mood. For fans of Ritual Howls, Throbbing Gristle and Coil.