Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

In March 2007, ATL met In Case Of Fire on the streets of New York. Their US record company had just let them down, hopes for the debut album were severely damaged and quietly, they were thinking of giving up by the end of the year. Their show at the Knitting Factory that night was more like a farewell letter than a salutation to the New World.

Since then, ICOF have turned their potential defeat into a gigantic throw-down. Who will deny them now? Certainly not the people at Kerrang! magazine, who will feature them on the cover some time in 2008, and are already throwing effusive compliments at their feet. And not the management team of Raw Power, associates of Iron Maiden, Gallows, and Funeral For A Friend. Just recently, ICOF are signed onto that roster and are currently talking to a series of record labels.

None of this would matter if the upcoming album, Align The Planets wasn't such a tremendous prospect, flagged up by the towering 'This Time We Stand'. The song makes an adamant showing at this afternoon gig (supporting the equally energised Oppenheimer), a challenge to this all-ages audience. Drummer Colin Robinson is probably the most incisive drummer we've heard in a local act since Fyfe Ewing left Therapy. Every song bristles and slams, while disembodied voices rage from the machines.

"Something is happening in our world," says one of these disturbing commentators. It sure is, pal.

Stuart Bailie

Images by Stuart Bailie