After At The Gates released their last album, 1995's slaughter of the soul, and split up soon after, i thought i would never even hear anything remotely similiar to them again. Sure, you have the modern day metalcore bands, some of which i really like, that are pretty similiar to ATG's style of melodic riffing. But what i felt these modern metalcore bands lacked was the "ATG" feel to them. There was just something to ATG that today's abundance of metalcore bands lacked, which i feel, is just something that cannot be described.
11 years after the legendary
Slaughter of the soul...out steps
Facing the Thousand by a relatively "unknown" band by the name of
Light This City. Up till now, i can safely say that this is one of the first bands that have the aforementioned "ATG" feel to them. Maybe there are some other bands that i've never heard of that has that similiar feel, but
Light This City sure does bring back memories of ATG. ATG has always been described as a mix of both trash and european death metal, and i would go as far as to say that Light This City are the same. The trashy, yet melodic riffs reminiscent of works from ATG, are ever present on this album...the trash and blast beats on the drums can also be found here. Finally, the "deathy" like vocals of both bands, well yes, they're similiar, but not that similiar...you'll know later.
Facing the thousand, the title track, is a really good way to start off the album. It opens with a soothing 1 minute violin section, followed by a distorted melodic riff over double bass from the drums. At around the 1:53 min mark, the riff that plays just sounds so much like what ATG would come up with. Very trashy sounding, yet still really melodic. The title track is mainly built upon a riff or two, and continues to progress from there. But, its still one of the better songs on the album.
The unwelcome saviour and
Exile just carries on whatever foundation the title track has laid. Trashy melodic guitar riffs, coupled with ferious trash and blast drumming occupies most of the opening 4 songs.
Hmm, what about the vocals you say? Well, if you didn't already know, the vocals are done by Laura Nichol, yes, a female. Granted, she is no Angela Gusow...but i'm by no means saying that she is not better. Their vocal styles, although has the deathy feel to it, are pretty easy to differentiate. Angela from Arch Enemy growls and screams more like a male would, while if you listen to Laura, you'd instantly know that a female is the front person for this band. Laura is by no means, a slouch. She displays strong vocal abilities all throughout the album. Her higher pitched screams that are usually used are very consistent and gives the songs a very rabid feel to it, while the low growls, used occasionally, gives the songs more variety and sometimes even add some heaviness to it.
Honestly though, i do not really have alot to say about this album. If you even remotely like ATG, you should get this album. If you like trash, death, metalcore or any kind of metal, I recommend you listen to some of this.
Recommended songs
Facing The Thousand
Exile
The Unwelcome Saviour
Recommended for fans of...
At The Gates
Arch Enemy
The Black Dahlia Murder
Any melodic metalcore/metal band
