Spitfire
- Story by Adrien Begrand
The reunited Spitfire make good metal, but bad detectives
When Spitfire rolled into Wilmington, NC for a recent show, they received a welcome to the Cape Fear River city as grim as the movie that bears the same name. Or so they thought. “About a block from the club there was an alleyway marked off with yellow police tape, and at the end of the alley there was a body covered with a sheet and detectives standing around,” explains drummer Chris Raines. “We were all a little freaked out and unloaded and went into to the club. About an hour later, we were talking to some people at the club and brought up the horrific murder down the street. They thought that was funny and told us about the TV show that was being filmed in the alley down the street. We felt like complete idiots.”
Returning with their first CD since 2001, the Virginia veterans know a thing or two about unsettling scenarios and imagery, not to mention the intensity that’s typical of technical metalcore; on the tight, unrelenting Self-Help, the band sounds so well-oiled you’d think they’d only taken four months off, not four years. Moonlighting Norma Jean guitarist Scottie Henry and Scarlet bassist Dan Tulloh have expanded the band to a quintet, and Raines says the new blood has been a huge boost. “Dan and Scottie have really complemented the band well. We are able to do so much more live and in studio than we could ever do before.”
In the years since Spitfire’s breakup, audiences have warmed up to the sound that they helped pioneer in the late ’90s, and the fortunate timing is not lost on the band. “It is so cool to see so many kids coming to shows and so many kids supporting bands in this genre,” says Raines. “Honestly, I don’t even think we realized it had gotten so big until we started playing shows again and talking to other bands.”
With a top-notch comeback album, a good relationship with label Goodfellow, and a tour in full swing, Spitfire are enjoying the positive response from new listeners and those who are more aware of the band’s influence. “It is very cool to hear bands like Norma Jean and Underoath tell us how much of an influence we had on them,” an appreciative Raines adds. “It’s a cycle; we wouldn’t sound the way we do without the bands we looked up to. I think bands just feed off one another; when we started, we were extremely influenced by bands like Deadguy, Coalesce and Entombed and I know those bands had their influences, too.”
