Review: Light The Torch- Revival

Light The Torch is a band with a somewhat checkered past. They started out as Devil You Know, releasing two albums before a long drawn out legal fight with their former drummer John Stankey forced the rest of the band to move on without him. They changed their name to Light The Torch and have just released their debut album on Nuclear Blast called Revival. Revival is the album you knew they had in them and the legal battle was just what they needed to give themselves that little kick in the ass to get it done. They didn’t even tell their record company what was going on until it was done and ready to go. “Die Alone” is first and it serves as a defiant statement of intent. The intent is to blur genre subdivisions. Meanwhile, the macabre atmospherics and blistering guitar riffs of “The God I Deserve” are contemporary and classic at the same time. Elsewhere, “Calm Before the Storm” is an invigorating, unpredictable, textured and absorbing piece of metal exuberance. “Raise The Dead” is an aurally grotesque, hyper kinetic attack on all of your senses while “The Safety of Disbelief” is more manic than a meth binge and it’s delivered with that same sense of wild abandon. “Virus” is a transcendental vocal mantra that will redefine accepted definitions of heavy while “The Great Divide” is incisive, but never indulgent rally cry of sheer brute force intensity. I hope you’re not tired cause were only a little over halfway through. “The Bitter End” pushes hard against the grain of expectation by pushing traditional heavy metal to its limits. Elsewhere, “Lost in the Fire” is so brutal you can actually feel it in your chest. It’s a beating that will slowly turn your eardrums to dust. In just around 2:30 Howard Jones makes his extraordinary vocal abilities known in his gritty performance of “The Sound of Violence.” While the massive slabs of thick grooves and structural dynamics of “Pull My Heart Out” are both compelling and infectious as hell. While the slower tones in “Judas Convention” serve as a much needed counterpoint to the band’s metal onslaught. Here’s the bottom line. The band is galvanizing their reputation though muscular grooves and relentless rhythmic aggression and deserves…NO DEMANDS your immediate attention. Rating: 8.5/10 -Eric Hunker