Light Bearer - Silver Tongue

Light Bearer - Aggressor & Usurper

Runs for: 16:49

Possibly the best song on the album, but only on it's own. You'll see what I mean.

Look, I want to like this album, and in many ways there’s a lot to like – but there are some gaping flaws in it which I can’t believe the band oversighted. We’ll break this down into a good and bad review. Let’s start with the good.

Firstly, it’s very ambitious. On top of the use of your standard band instruments, there’s use of violin, horns and clever effects in order to create a big, opera-like sound at moments on the album. The quieter parts of the songs are really impressive with delicate, entrancing guitar being employed, and the drumming is exceptional at transforming the song into a hard-hitting, head-banging whirlwind of rhythmically interesting beats.

Unfortunately, it falls flat in places. A lot of the time, the main guitar riffs get monotonous and aren’t adventurous, with repetitive and simple chugging being employed without anything clever to support it – be this guitar solos, drum riffs or even anything from their orchestral arsenal. This detracts from the rest of almost every song, as parts where the violin plays start to stand out, not to actually support the song but rather shift the focus to the orchestral segments. This comes off as if to say ‘look at us! We have a violin!’ which is horribly pretentious. Each song sounds far too similar, every song follows a formula which is horribly obvious - going from ‘HARD PART! SOFT PART! CLIMAX! MAYBE A SOFT PART AGAIN!’ and even on the best track, Aggressor & Usurper, this is so prevalent that it makes me ill. The whole experience is like trying to kiss a girl who has awful breath – all very exciting at first but you feel a bit dirty once you realise what’s wrong. The worst part about it is that with a bit of attention, this would be super obvious to her and easily fixed. C’est la vie I suppose.

Reccomended for: Anyone who's into progressive sludge. Think Rosetta, Isis, Neurosis, that sort of thing.

Download it for free (or hell, pay if you like it) here: http://lightbearer.bandcamp.com/