Divine Intervention?
Bay Area metallers Light This City are on a mission - to fuse the legendary elements of thrash metal, made famous by veterans such as Exodus and Testament, with the darker stylings of death maestros At The Gates but with a modern twist. Picking up where 2003 debut album 'The Hero Cycle' left off, the band, led by thundering vocalist Laura Nichol, deliver their first offering, 'Remains of the Gods', on American label Prosthetic Records. However, when the hype is removed, the quintet seem to falter on a number of levels.
Essentially, Light This City are a promising young band with all the right ingredients; musical ability alongside excellent lyrical skill and this can clearly be heard on listening to the album. However, after your senses have been barraged with an aural assault of low-pitched snarls by Nichol intertwined with blast beats and riffs concocted by multi-instrumentalist supremo Ben Murray (he wrote all of the songs, providing drums and guitars for the album) it all begins to seem a bit, well, messy.
Opener 'Remains of the Gods' charges through the speakers with an unstoppable force that continues throughout the LP but by the second track 'Obituary' you're wishing that you could actually make out what the enraged howls are actually trying to say. In a world where the scene seems to be becoming surrounded by Lacuna Coils and Tarja Tururens, it's fair enough to give Laura Nichol a pat on the back for her effort. Succeeding in not sounding like a squeaky twelve year old ranting along to his favourite Slayer record, she delivers her expertly crafted lyrics to her audience. Yet as time wearily drags on these listeners might find themselves (as I did) checking the lyrics card in an attempt to figure out what track they're listening to whilst hoping vainly for a different pitch of roars. Simply put, they follow the same pattern time and time again - Growl. Growl. Take a strepsil. Growl.
By fifth track 'Letter To My Abuser' its not just Laura Nichol's vocals that are becoming repetitive. Showing no variation in approach or sound the band continue to pummel their instruments to the very end, throwing in the odd hook here and there to lighten the landscape. By saying this though I don't mean that one song should be a death metal blast of hate and the next an explosion of jazz hands; Light This City are full to the brim with potential that they sometimes fulfill on epics 'The Hunt' and 'The Static Masses'. Undoubtedly a highlight of the record is 'Fractured by The Fall'. The guitars and vocals don't just pound their way through another song for the sake of it, the riffs rise above the swirling backdrop of anger to deliver a powerful shot of what could turn out to be the metalcore of the future.
All in all, Light This City might soon set the scene alight. With their winning combination of instrumental prowess and the outstanding quality of Nichol's song writing the future looks bright but they'll have to get rid of the repetitive elements before they can fan the flames of success.