Firekites are back! And the long wait between albums has definitely been worth it.

'Closing Forever Sky' is the much anticipated follow up to the Newcastle four piece's sparkling debut, 'The Bowery'.

Commandeering the formal dining room at McPhees home, the band set about meticulously crafting and recording this suite of seven new songs. John McEntire was then enlisted to mix the entire thing at his famous Soma Electronic studios in Chicago, Illinois, and the results are breathtaking. From the outset of the opening track it's evident that we're in for a much darker ride than the first album. Hand claps and chitchatting acoustic guitars have been traded for sure-footed drum beats and warm Kid A-esque analogue tones.

This is a headphone album, that's for sure. Repeated listens constantly reveal exciting twists and turns.

Guitars Thurston-spaz and tremolo swoop, delicate keys twinkle underneath haunted swarms while sneaky drum triplets wait in the wings to pounce and kick the whole song's arse! In fact it'd be more on the button to call them "pieces" or arrangements rather than songs. Luscious passages spectacularly segue from one to the next painting stories of grandeur.