This Denver Band Is Crusty and Killing It

The crustiest band in Denver right now is Victim of Fire. And we mean that as nothing but a term of endearment for the ferocious four-piece, which proudly stakes the claim to being the city’s only “stadium crust band.”

“We love Tragedy. The joke with them is they’re stadium crust, because they’re epic all the time,” says guitarist-vocalist Austin Minney of the crust-punk vets. “The goal is to be as epic as possible at every moment.”

Victim of Fire certainly gives a heroic effort on its new album, The Old Lie, which released on August 1 via San Diego DIY label Human Future Records. While it’s technically the band's second full-length, Minney has been pushing out music under the Victim of Fire banner since he started it as a solo project in 2016. But he considers the sophomore effort — featuring bassist Dustin, drummer Marc and guitarist Emily (these members use first names only) — the finest representation of the current lineup yet.

“The new record is our best material. Every band says this, but I’ve done a lot of records in my day and it’s some of the best songs I’ve definitely ever written,” Minney says.

“I didn’t feel that way going into it, but once the band fully had their hands on them, I was like. ‘Oh, some of these songs are really cool.’ The new record is the fastest, angriest material we’ve ever written, and that’s coming from an old soft guy.”
Let’s dive in. First off, the catch-all “crust” tag is misleading, especially after you hear the searing riffage unleashed on The Old Lie. The blazing dual attack of Minney and Emily is straight Swedish melodeath, or if you’re a thirtysomething Millennial, more along the lines of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal that pulled from its Scandinavian counterparts in forming a separate movement in the early 2000s.

“Apocalyptic Inclination” and “Soldier’s Dream” shred hard in their blackened glory, while the title track features a guitar lick reminiscent of early In Flames, and that’s a good thing in our book. “Discordance,” a re-recording of a previous demo that’s been a recent setlist staple, hits like a hammer to the head. “Disharmonist” is a doomier anti-war ode. The cherry on top is the closer, “Aces High,” a souped-up cover of the Iron Maiden classic.

It all makes The Old Lie a wildly unique composition, but that’s Victim of Fire.

“We play punk music, but at the same time I have the tendencies to write metallic hardcore riffs over D-beats,” Minney says, adding that the group is often met with confused reactions live, depending on the makeup of the show and the crowd.

“A lot of people who are really crusty, are like, ‘You’re not crusty enough,’” he continues. “But if you play metal music, you’re like, ‘Okay, that’s kind of cool,’ but the punks are like, ‘That’s too much.’ It’s really not that much. We fit into a lot of places, but at the same time, a lot of people don’t understand it.”

That’s actually a good reason why you should check them out — Victim of Fire doesn’t care to fit neatly into any preconceived subgenre box.

The band has a whole release weekend planned, including Saturday, August 9, at hi-dive. Seed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch, Spear of Cassius, and Ukko’s Hammer are also on that bill.

Festivities kick off on Thursday, August 7, at What’s Left Records in Colorado Springs with Oreyn, Crotalus and Panpsychism, followed by a Fort Collins appearance at Surfside 7 alongside Seed of the Sorcerer, Yapper and Copper Teeth. So there’s no reason to miss out, no matter where you live.

Lyrically, Victim of Fire typically writes about the atrocities of war and how the powers that be use propaganda to glorify and justify such mass slaughtering, and that’s the way it’s always been. The Old Lie certainly speaks to that. Minney was inspired to write “Soldiers Dream” after reading the poetry of World War I solider Wilfred Owen, an Englishman who was killed at the age of 25 a week before the Great Conflict ended.

“A lot of bands sing about that, the concept that war is bad,” he says of the archetypal crust approach, adding he may write about it in a tongue-and-cheek way at times, too. “It is serious, but at the same time I don’t want to just write Discharge lyrics so many years later.”

No matter what you call it, Victim of Fire is ultimately a true hybrid.

“We’re not a crust-punk band, we’re a crusty band, just because we play the D-beat,” Minney concludes. “We play a lot of metal riffs, too, but we’re punks at the same time.”

Victim of Fire, with Seed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch, Spear of Cassius and Ukko’s Hammer, 8 p.m. Saturday, August 9, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway. Tickets are $15.