Light Yourself On Fire
Self Titled
6.8
Why hasn’t Goodfellow Records snatched these guys up? I wonder if they even know about Light Yourself On Fire (NOT Set Yourself On Fire, which you might find by doing incorrect web searches), and if not, they should. So, for the moment Kiss Of Death is the home of this gritty Tampa, Florida 4-piece, a band that would like to consider itself a ‘power death’ band. I guess that’s supposed to be a mix of ‘power violence’, and death metal.
Ok.
So anyway, what we have here is a self-titled EP with seven short tracks of abrasive, crunchy, stiff staccato-driven metalcore, with befitting production, and decent musicianship. Sounds a little bit like Converge when things speed up like on energetically arrhythmic “Rickshaw”, and a touch like early Today Is The Day, and Coalesce when the grooves are slow and choppy on opener “960AM”. Lots of big power chords with tightly picked galloping riffs accentuate “Flux Capacitor”, the warbling melody of “You Talking Is It Necessary?” sounds like Slayer in 1985, stoned completely off their asses and playing at half the normal speed, and “4 Blows” reminds me of Pro-Pain’s more basic lumbering march, only better. It sure has a sluggish sort of charm to it.
I can tell where the violence is here, but the death metal? Hmm. Not really hearing much of that, honestly. The vocals exhibit more of a throaty midranged rasp that comes closer to that of Zao, or Breaking The Dead Stare-period Scarlet, rather than Morbid Angel. The guitars have a grinding sharpness to them and aren’t tuned terribly low; it isn’t very extreme, nor is it overly brutal in any way. But the shit is pretty good, doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to the pacing and song length, and isn’t entirely derivative of more established acts. There’s nothing on this disc that’s really exciting or noteworthy, but this disc is still solid but ordinary, nevertheless.
For being so brief, the quality levels are respectable, and if you had the few bucks to spare it wouldn’t be a terrible investment to pick this up. But for those of us with a shorter attention span, a full-length offering will probably be what it takes to become fully interested in what Light Yourself On Fire has to offer. They’re worthy of attention, and I’m sure these songs kill in a live setting, even if it’s a short set. Check ‘em out.
