My experience with By Fire And Sword checking them out after nik's review was a frustrating one. I like traditional heavy metal enough to know how much vocals can be a very divisive factor ranging from band to band, in a slightly different way than extreme metal where the extreme vocals as a whole are an issue for people, but one they get accustomed to that it's very rare for someone to have an issue with a specific vocalist (Six Feet Under need not apply). In heavy metal however you can have varying amounts of corniness or passion. By Fire And Sword's The Reverend has a good enough tone, but felt somewhat passionless in execution, even if you can tell that wasn't really the case. Suffice to say, the prospect of hearing By Fire And Sword without the vocals, in a completely different genre was an intriguing one.
Technically, By Fire And Sword was formed a year earlier than Weald And Woe, but Weald And Woe put out their first release a year earlier than By Fire And Sword, so one can't really make the case that one is the side-project of the other one. I did however come from hearing the heavy metal version first. Also, the member overlap isn't complete, with only half the people on Far From The Light Of Heaven having played in By Fire And Sword as well (previous Weald And Woe records also had Glory's drummer). But very relevant is that Jeffrey Young is part of that member overlap, being a founding and occasionally sole composing member of both bands, so the shared DNA is massive.
Jeffrey isn't the sole guitarist in the band, with those duties being shared by Brent Ruddy, who doesn't seem to have any credits in other traditional/heavy metal bands. This does result in the guitar front of Far From The Light Of Heaven having a quite specific tone, a touch experimental in a way that isn't expressly specific for black metal, and with its overtly melodic side having a medieval edge but most of all being so clearly taken from that traditional/heavy metal lineage with all those galloping twin guitars. But the fact that it isn't solely that trad element in its melodic side, incredibly strong as it still is, does make it a pretty interesting listen.
Jeffrey and Brent also share vocal duties, and I can't precisely say which are done by which. But the vocals here give me the exact opposite feeling of the ones in By Fire And Sword, being the most overt black metal element of the music, and often taking the form of very impassioned shrieks. They seem to be mixed lower than the guitars, giving them more of a distant echo vibe, though that doesn't take any of their power. The shrieks/screams working along with a melodic leaning, even if that is a melodic leaning of a very different genre, does give some of the vocals a slight post-hardcore/screamo note, and I suspect that's the tone of one of the two vocalists.
Far From The Light Of Heaven is more epic than the atmospheric/romantic cover art would suggest, being more fit for battlefields and dungeons. More Stormkeep than Summoning.
