Light The Torch - 'Revival' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Die Alone

2. The God I Deserve

3. Calm Before The Storm

4. Raise The Dead

5. The Safety Of Disbelief

6. Virus

7. The Great Divide

8. The Bitter End

9. Lost In The Fire

10. The Sound Of Violence

11. Pull My Heart Out

12. Judas Convention

Light The Torch were formerly known as Devil You Know until a dispute with former drummer John Sankey who left the group in 2016 which ultimately forced the name change. The band is fronted by Howard Jones of formerly of Killswitch Engage . The rest of the band is made up of Francesco Artusato (guitar), Ryan Wombacher (bass) and Mike Sciulara (drums).

They released their third album in March, which is their first to use the name. Live gigs will include songs from the new record as well as Devil You Know songs.

The album is titled ‘Revival’ and was recorded in Los Angeles. It packs a mighty Metal punch. Jones has an incredible voice which is soulful, heavy and brutal in equal measures. I guess Light The Torch are likely to be pigeonholed as Metalcore and in many ways that is correct. However their way with melody and harmony shows that their influences stretch much further than that.

Jones is arguably one of the best Rock vocalists out there and this album helps cement that reputation even further. There are classic Metal riffs and wave after wave of Metal mayhem, choruses and hooks that are impossible to ignore. Some of the songs, notably “The Bitter End” and “Virus” favour the soft/ quiet to hard/ loud approach deployed by the Pixies and later by Nirvana. But those quite moments only provide a brief respite to the overwhelming assalt of your eardrums.

“The Sounds Of Violence” does was it says on the tin and sounds incredibly violent in places. After three spins my current favourite tune here is “The Great Divide” which is one of the most soulful on display here and oozes emotion. The opening layered guitar attack on “Raise The Dead” is huge and if played in a graveyard would have a damned good chance of bringing the odd corpse back to life. I can picture “Calm Before The Storm” as a festival anthem across the world.

My one criticism is that the song structure and approach is quite similar in many of the tracks on ‘Revival’ but it is hard to deny that this is a strong and perhaps very commercial release from a band close to the top of its game.