Light This City - Remains Of The Gods
For those of you not familiar with this band they've recently emerged as the most faithful At The Gates clone in metal thus far. Even though they're Americans they recreated the classic period Gothenburg melodeath sound absolutely perfectly. But like a double-edge sword, it's both their
strength and weakness as you can't help get that been there, done that feeling when listening to their records.
This second album finds Light This City expanding on this trademark sound by incorporating more outside elements than you find in classic period melodeath. One you'll notice right away is the frequent use of blast beats, almost on every song. This more aggressive approach definitely adds a more brutal edge to the music but it comes directly at the expense of their previous more melodic approach. And that's the other big change, the almost complete abandonment of melodic riffs outside the core Gothenburg style of using them as the main riff. Even when they're used as the main riff on this album it's so fast it's hard to even tell what's happening.
I can see why they went this route as they were probably tired of the At The Gates comparisons but now they much more resemble current era death metal bands in sound and structure. That's not to say they've turned into a totally different band as there's still plenty of great sounding melodeath here but it's not each and every song like their last record or even the bulk of any given song. Some fans might like this turn to a more death metal sound but for the fans that felt like At The Gates had risen again you can't help but feel a pang of disappointment to see this new approach.
One thing that has not changed in the least is the absolutely stellar production. If anything it's even better. The guitars are crisp, the drums are punishing and the throat ripping vocals (by a female!) are perfectly placed in the mix.
On the whole I think Light This City find themselves in an awkward position of not satisfying their core traditionalist audience but not being hard enough for straight death metal. Hopefully they stop straddling the fence on their next record so at least one camp can be pleased. I hope it's mine!
This second album finds Light This City expanding on this trademark sound by incorporating more outside elements than you find in classic period melodeath. One you'll notice right away is the frequent use of blast beats, almost on every song. This more aggressive approach definitely adds a more brutal edge to the music but it comes directly at the expense of their previous more melodic approach. And that's the other big change, the almost complete abandonment of melodic riffs outside the core Gothenburg style of using them as the main riff. Even when they're used as the main riff on this album it's so fast it's hard to even tell what's happening.
I can see why they went this route as they were probably tired of the At The Gates comparisons but now they much more resemble current era death metal bands in sound and structure. That's not to say they've turned into a totally different band as there's still plenty of great sounding melodeath here but it's not each and every song like their last record or even the bulk of any given song. Some fans might like this turn to a more death metal sound but for the fans that felt like At The Gates had risen again you can't help but feel a pang of disappointment to see this new approach.
One thing that has not changed in the least is the absolutely stellar production. If anything it's even better. The guitars are crisp, the drums are punishing and the throat ripping vocals (by a female!) are perfectly placed in the mix.
On the whole I think Light This City find themselves in an awkward position of not satisfying their core traditionalist audience but not being hard enough for straight death metal. Hopefully they stop straddling the fence on their next record so at least one camp can be pleased. I hope it's mine!
