Review written by Stijn “Metal Shredder” Daneels.

Now Maarten has called me up again to check out “From Forge To Fire,” Layers Of Devotion’s second single, not only Maarten but also our longtime friends over at Hard Life Promotion offered us to check out this single. So that further enticed my curiosity to see how Layers Of Devotion had evolved these past twelve months.

“From Forge To Fire” is the second single from the Dutch melodic death metal band Layers Of Devotion and is once again an independent release.

The song immediately kicks off with an energetic guitar solo that’s unusually lengthy for an opening solo but it does get the song into high gear. Then the grunts guide us through the song’s first verse, accompanied by blast beasts and ending with a short, clean/grunt duet. Then the clean vocals take over to deliver the chorus until the grunts and blasts return to the next verse. After that verse and a second chorus the song gets slow and heavy with vicious yelling and shrieking before a second guitar solo elevates the pressure. Then comes a third verse (identical in structure to the earlier two) and one final chorus before the song signs off.

One thing that I instantly noticed when comparing “From Forge To Fire” to the earlier single “Flood Of Violence” is the improved production quality. While not a huge difference, I did feel “From Forge To Fire” to sound a bit clearer and crisper. Also the song has a slightly shorter runtime and gets going a lot quicker.

For me, I begin to see Layers Of Devotion as a band that benefits from past-paced riffing, upbeat guitar solos and a balance between clean vocals and death metal grunts and although I think the band can still get their sound a little bit tighter, they’re showing positive evolution with this new single.

The artwork for this “From Forge To Fire” single features a hellish landscape of blackened mountains spitting lava, blood-red clouds and a huge winged demon flying around. The whole scenery reminds me of the realm of Mordor and the winged creature makes me think of the Witch King flying on the back of his fellbeast.

Thematically, Layers Of Devotion’s new single once again deals with apocalyptic topics. This time the band wonders whether humanity’s “eye for an eye” mentality does more harm than good. Maybe the hell, fire and brimstone imagery on the single’s cover art is how the earth would end up looking like according to Layers Of Devotion if we don’t start putting aside our egos and work towards a goal that’s bigger than ourselves. The greater good.

8 truths out of 10. A better produced and better written new single that showcases Layers Of Devotion’s musical strengths even more than their already enjoyable debut single. In one year’s time, Layers Of Devotion further expanded their arsenal of multiple guitar solos and flexible vocal ranges to bring us some very nice melodic death metal.