Fire-Toolz: Lavender Networks

"Every fan has a different way of describing the absolutely bonkers music that Angel Marcloid makes as Fire-Toolz. Her songs are effortlessly virtuosic and unapologetically epic, built like a web woven by a caffeinated spider, as she screeches over fidgety riffs and dazzling synth runs. Some might call it vaporwave; for others, it's primarily black metal, or jazz fusion."

"Fire-Toolz is progressive metal, an internet-brained update on bands like Queensrÿche and Dream Theater, whose albums are like novels for a certain kind of nerdy metalhead. On her Warp debut Lavender Networks, Marcloid runs with these inspirations to build a record more like a classic '80s metal LP-ballads, riffs, heroic journeys-rather than the fidgety freneticism of her past work. Relatively, of course."

"Warp is not a major label, but it might as well be for an electronic artist, and Lavender Networks functions like an ideal major-label debut: Everything is bigger, shinier, and more focused, with collaborators outside her usual wheelhouse, like Zola Jesus and Nailah Harper. The UK institution reached out to Marcloid after she released , which underlined the jazz fusion and electronic aspects of the Fire-Toolz sound."

"Lavender Networks begins with a magnificent, multi-part suite: a chilled out-intro followed by a black metal crashout that's blindingly bright. "Quintessential Fixed Width Unfoldment" is kind of Yes, kind of Liturgy, and all Marcloid, especially in how it dips into a gorgeously lazy drift and unravels into a krautrock outro. That turn would be a major highlight on a normal record; h"

Fire-Toolz music by Angel Marcloid blends virtuosic, unapologetically epic elements, combining screeched vocals with fidgety riffs and dazzling synth runs. The sound can be described in multiple ways, including vaporwave, black metal, or jazz fusion. Lavender Networks, released on Warp, functions like a major-label debut with larger, shinier, more focused compositions and collaborators such as Zola Jesus and Nailah Harper. The album draws on influences from classic ’80s metal ballads and heroic journeys, while still incorporating black and death metal passages, scorched-earth electronics, and elaborate keyboard runs. It opens with a multi-part suite that moves from a chilled intro into a bright black metal crashout and then into krautrock-leaning material.

Read at Pitchfork