The Bad Penny (beta)

“She was just my perfect companion for 14.5 years. Every day I was happy to see her, and I’m honored to say she was happy to see me too.”

-Fires in the Distance vocalist/guitarist Brendan Hayter

There’s a strong case to be made that melodic death-metal bands gain notice and recognition, and cultivate their fanbases, by devoting far more time and energy to their recorded output as opposed to touring. Fires in the Distance are an exception to that generalization – because their exceptional live performances are as exceptional as their studio material. Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity helped the Connecticut band gain notice with an opening slot on the European heroes’ joint tour three years ago, on the strength of just two Fires in the Distance full-lengths: 2020’s Echoes From Deep November and 2023’s Air Not Meant for Us.

Like clockwork (as another Scandinavian extreme-metal band, Meshuggah, would say), Fires in the Distance just issued their third record, Circadian Promise, after another three years of dutiful songwriting and recording – and issued it via Prosthetic, which put out the quartet’s first two gems. (That’s notwithstanding an instrumental album released in ) On paper, what’s most striking about the new record is that it features a new frontman: vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Brendan Hayter, whose surname is as well-suited for a metal band as his chops are for the doomish MDM crew.

In an effort to further acquaint Fires in the Distance fans with Hayter, The Bad Penny recently connected with him to participate in our ongoing Pet Sounds series, to which he graciously obliged. He told us all about his cat Mimsy, and while we typically don’t include discussions about pets post mortem, Hayter’s touching recollections about his companion and how he worked through her loss are valuable advice to pet owners about how to deal with both love and grief over animals.