It's a hot, swampy July day and in a quiet Connecticut neighborhood, death metal blares from the back room of a modest colonial-style home. Inside, melodic death metal quartet Fires in the Distance are setting up to begin their first rehearsal as they prepare for their upcoming tour with co-headliners Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity.
Wires criss-cross the floor and they've pushed the couches against the wall to make ample room for kickass death metal-ing. The space is in a state of organized chaos and on a bannister sits a small Yoda figurine, his outstretched arms cradling a bundle of coasters, as he observes the commotion in front of him. The band has purchased new in-ear monitors for the tour and they're tinkering with the interface on their phones and adjusting the mix as they go.
"Let's start with 'Harbinger's," bassist Craig Breitsprecher says once they've dialed in their settings, his voice amplified by the speakers tucked in the corners of the room, "we need to do this song justice when we play it live."
With that, the guys lock in and their first rehearsal officially begins, their doom-infused style of melodic death metal quickly filling the room to its brim as they launch into the opening track from their 2023 album Air Not Meant for Us. There's a moment of quiet focus between the guys as the intro plays through the monitors and when they come in together, it's a miracle that the contents of the nearby bookshelf, consisting of books on birdwatching and, aptly, a collection of games that includes Jenga, don't come spilling onto the floor.
Fires in the Distance released their debut album, Echoes from Deep November, in 2020 to warm reception from listeners and critics who heralded the group as a promising act brimming with potential. Within three years, the group delivered on those expectations with their sophomore release Air Not Meant for Us, which garnered critical acclaim, with Metal Injection's own Jordan Blum stating the album "is a masterpiece of modern melodic death metal, plain and simple."
On the heels of their successful releases came first the opportunity to travel overseas and perform at Desertfest London, then the call from their label, Prosthetic Records, asking if they'd like to go on tour with melodeath superstars Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity.
For Yegor Savonin, the group's guitarist and songwriter, the chance to tour in support of his longtime idols is the opportunity of a lifetime.
"It's kind of like literally living out our childhood dream here," Savonin says. "Craig and I, we grew up on Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity, we've seen them a million times. They're two of our favorite bands and for them to give us this opportunity is just unreal."
"Dude, Yegor introduced me to Dark Tranquillity," Breitsprecher says, laughing. "I remember riding around your car, just like smoking cigarettes out the window, blasting Damage Done. That was my entire, like, high school soundtrack, sophomore to senior year was Character and Damage Done and you would not allow us to talk when we were listening to them."
"Yeah, it was important," Savonin shrugs. "It was really revolutionary shit."
As the band finishes their runthrough of "Harbinger"s, the slight air of nervous tension that hung between them before the rehearsal began is gone and the guys are smiling, having again found comfort in the familiarity of one another through the rhythms and melodies they just played.
They take a moment to regroup and tinker with the mix in their in-ear monitors again and it's obvious that this isn't just a band of guys preparing for their biggest tour to date, it's a band of guys who are ready and eager to hit the road and show everyone what they're made of.
"It's put me personally, and everyone too, in a really professional mindset," says Kristian Grimaldi, the group's guitarist and vocalist. "I kind of think of it as every show I've ever played, from 12 years old up to now, was in preparation for a tour like this."
"It'll be exciting to see what happens after, too," adds drummer Jordan Rippe. "We'll get to meet some new people, hopefully make some new fans, and just see what opportunities are waiting for us on the other side of this tour."
Savonin nods in agreement as he takes a drag of his cigarette. "One of our primary focuses is to still maintain that level of humility," he says. "I feel like it's a big responsibility on us not to fumble this and perform as professionally as possible."
"It's super cool we have this opportunity," Breitsprecher adds, "but it's not lost on us that we have to put in the work and put in the performance to earn these people and earn this opportunity."
"We're definitely accepting this offer with a lot of gratitude," Savonin finishes. "We're going to carry that ‘till the last day of the tour, we're so humble and grateful to be here."
As much as their story is about stepping up to the biggest milestone of their music careers to date, their story is also about the work that each of the members put into their careers outside of the band to make their passion for music a reality, and what this tour opportunity might mean for their futures both in and outside of music.
When he's not writing music or playing guitar, Yegor Savonin works as a dialysis nurse. Guitarist Kristian Grimaldi is a master carpenter who owns his own business, bassist Craig Breitsprecher is a certified financial planner running his own practice, and drummer Jordan Rippe is a Boston-based chemist who is in the process of transitioning into a new job in his hometown of New Haven, Connecticut.
As the band's music career snowballs, each success they encounter works to put them closer to the discussion, and the reality, of what their momentum as a band might mean for how they approach their future as a band as well as their individual careers. When asked about this, it's no surprise that the band of working musicians has already considered and discussed what this opportunity means for their future, and they're taking it one step at a time and approaching things with cautious optimism.
"We'll of course have to cross that bridge when we get there because it's not really feasible," Savonin says.
"The math doesn't really add up," Breitsprecher adds. "The other thing too is, mentally, if music becomes your full time gig, it starts to feel like your full time job, right? It's no longer fun. And that's not to mean any disrespect to our industry partners or our label. It's just we know what we signed up for and I know for myself, it's like I needed to start my own business to monetize my music, because, you're just not going to get that revenue from it that you need to support yourself or your family."
"Craig and I's previous band, we definitely reached a burnout point where we were not enjoying even going to practice anymore, regardless of how much effort we put into it," Savonin adds. "So you want to try to navigate as best as you can to avoid that, you know? Whatever balance you have to find, you gotta really put some work into it. I look at it as my job is stressful, my career is stressful, there's a lot of stress in life. So I use [music] as a therapeutic type thing as well. You can never forget that eventually it's going to end. So you want to have a backup plan, you know what I mean? You don't want to get to, like, fifty years old and not have a career that you can step into."
Breitsprecher nods in agreement, looking at the other guys around him, "I don't know about you guys, but I feel less pressure," he confesses. "In some ways – it's like, I know what I need to do to make money, and I know what I need to do to express myself as an artist, and the fact that they exist on two separate planes, I think it's liberating."
As the band forges onward, they confirm that they're not approaching their future with drastic changes in mind, explaining that they've each struck a balance between their careers and music and even have contingency plans in place that allow them to practice, make music and ultimately embark on the tour ahead of them.
For Savonin, that meant having someone committed to stepping in and filling his role in the band if he couldn't finish the tour. Working for a dialysis clinic, he wasn't sure he could get enough time off for the whole tour, but was pleasantly surprised when the clinic told him he could have the entire five weeks off to go on the road.
Grimaldi, who owns his own carpentry business, took on extra work in anticipation of shutting down for the duration of the tour. Breitsprecher found flexibility for the tour through strategic hires that allow him to temporarily step away from his practice with peace of mind knowing that he has licensed financial planners on staff who can step up and fill his shoes until he returns.
It's clear that the guys have been consciously cultivating a balance between work and music for a long time in service of an opportunity like this tour, and it's inspiring to see it paying off as well as their level-headed approach to their future as a band.
By the time their ship out date in September rolls around, the group has put in three rehearsals, packed all their gear and merch into a U-Haul truck, and have pulled into the parking lot of SST Studios and Rentals in Weehawken, New Jersey, where they're waiting for the tour bus to arrive.
There's a cool breeze in the air and the blue sky is littered with puffy, white clouds. Savonin and Breitsprecher are already waiting, having driven the U-Haul from Connecticut earlier in the day, when the rest of the guys roll up, their suitcases clattering across the parking lot. Joining them for the tour is their friend and "swiss army guy" Gus Griffen, who will help them move gear, man their merch table, and draw on his experience as a chef to keep the guys fed throughout the five weeks they're on the road.
The tour bus is running late and the guys settle in to keep each other company. Among the things they talk about, they discuss the rules for living on the bus, what games they'll be playing on the Nintendo Switch in their downtime, the new Wintersun album, and whether or not they all packed the appropriate number of black shirts and black pants.
When the tour bus arrives, backing into the parking lot, a hush falls across the guys. All eyes are on the bus they'll be calling home for the next five weeks and you can sense that they're taking it all in, that it's finally sinking in that they've made it.
"This just got real," Breitsprecher says quietly to himself as he moves out of the way of the tour bus. "This shit just got real."
Once the bus is parked and the attached trailer is opened, the guys immediately set into loading their gear. Grimaldi hops into the back of the U-Haul, handing items to his bandmates who relocate them to the asphalt to be sorted as they're packed into the trailer.
They pack their drums, general concert gear and toteloads of merch into the black pull-behind trailer. Among the boxes of stuff moving between the U-Haul and the trailer is a Coleman grill in a red and white box. Griffen points to it and smiles. "This is my instrument," he says.
The trailer is loaded in less than thirty minutes and now all the guys have to do is pack their guitars and suitcases into the under-carriage storage of the bus and put their personal belongings on board. Once everything is tucked away, they gather together in front of the bus for a quick huddle, then they hop on the bus to officially begin their tour, their route taking them to Washington D.C. where they'll connect with the members of Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity before heading to Richmond the next day for the first show of their tour.
As the bus pulls out of the parking lot, a faint air of excitement and anticipation remains in the area where the band was slinging equipment moments ago, a lingering impression of the nerves and happiness each member was feeling in the very last moments before they stepped into the very first moments of their biggest tour to date.
