This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
There’s a fine line between being an angry young man and a bitter old coot.
Dunnville, Ont. indie-rockers have been there and done the first one — and they’re smart enough to avoid the second. So, on their third full-length The Coastaline Fire, they take a step back from the fire-breathing aggro and bottom-heavy propulsion of their earlier albums and take a more progressive — as in progressive-rock — stance. The 11 tracks on this 45-minute album layer chugging, churning, syncopated guitar angles atop rock-solid drumbeats and basslines (though this time around, they have just one bassist instead of two) to underpin the band’s soaring, yowling vocals and tales of aging, decay, disillusionment and despair. If Rush had been a Seattle grunge band, they might have sounded a little like the new model Chore. Just call them New World Men. And call this CD their Caress of Steel.
