“I miss you most of all.” Back in 2023, I had no trouble finding my way into Air Not Meant for Us, the sophomore release from Connecticut’s melodic death/doom quartet Fires in the Distance. Its grand, anguished beauty was precisely the kind of oxygen meant for me at a time of intense personal upheaval and a seemingly depthless grief. It is jarring to think back over the last three years, take stock, and wonder at the great distance between now and then as well as its shuddering propinquity. It’s still so live, my memories of it so sharp, that it’s shocking … Continue reading “By Chance or by Design”: Fires in the Distance’s Circadian Promise