Full Album Stream: The Living Fields: Running Out Of Daylight – semi-new album

‘Running Out Of Daylight’, second full-length by American doom/progressive/folk/symphonic/atmospheric metal band THE LIVING FIELDS and their Candlelight Records debut, was released back in July 2011. Hellbound.Ca has just recently decided that not enough of us are aware of this release and is currently streaming it in its ambitious entirety here (and via the player available below) and quite rightly so. Three years in the making, ‘Running Out Of Daylight’ sees the addition of a new guitarist Samu Rahn, and features violinist and violist Chuck Bontrager and cellist Petar Kecenovici. The album (made up of the group's longest and shortest songs to date) is comprised of eight tracks and is clocking in at over 60 minutes. ‘Running Out Of Daylight’ was produced and mixed by Jay Walsh, Farview Recording. If you like what you hear then, buy THE LIVING FIELDS impressive tunes here (THE LIVING FIELDS).

Lyric-wise, the voice and lyricist Jon Higgs' storylines veer far to the left of the self-centered clichés of doom (love, loss and death) in favor of more universal horrors that flow freely from the seemingly endless parade of humanity's self-inflicted plagues. Oppression, injustice, suffering and man's inhumanity to man flourish with such virility in today's world that merely turning on the news offers up ample material for an entire album. Reading any book of history provides enough for a dozen – unwaveringly states the press release.

“One has to give THE LIVING FIELDS credit for really trying to be different. While they may owe a few gothic doom debts to cross-town heroes NOVEMBERS DOOM, this Chicago-based quartet goes to great lengths to differentiate their sound with additional musical elements of the progressive, symphonic, and atmospheric persuasion. As a result, the frequently epic-sized songs presented on the group's sophomore album, 2011's ‘Running Out Of Daylight’, rarely give up their inner secrets on first listen, but then, nor do they always completely achieve the lofty ambitions set out by their creators,” [commented Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – more here] :

THE LIVING FIELDS: Running Out of Daylight – courtesy of Hellbound.ca

Born as an outlet for guitarist Jason Muxlow's doom inclinations and populist beliefs in 2002 in Chicago, THE LIVING FIELDS founder soon found a partner who would bring a voice to the score in MONSTERWOK's Jon Higgs. The pair recorded a 4-song demo, ‘The Miseries Never Cease’, released in 2004 to much critical acclaim. (Download the demo free of charge here.) In 2005, joined by drummer Chad Walls (PUSTULATED, BESIEGED, DISLIMB etc.) the band had set to work on their full-length debut, which proved to be long and painful process. After being refused by label after label, THE LIVING FIELDS decided to release their debut self-titled self-produced full-length on their own in 2007 :

THE LIVING FIELDS (2007) – courtesy of The Living Fields