In the early 2000’s, metal bands were plopping onto the laps of labels left and right, and most bands who had a record released in the first five years at the turn of the century had a solid foundation with the support of MySpace and a healthy combination of record and merch sales. Now that the streaming culture has bastardized artists primary means of income, bands are left getting super creative and being extremely aggressive when it comes to their merch sales. Not that merch sales have anything to do with the quality or the sound of Light This City’s latest record, but when looking back on the band’s catalogue and former success, it’s obvious their accomplishments of their earlier records had a lot more to so with “time and place,” than actual substantiated artistic merit.
It was always plain vanilla thrash meets metalcore with these guys, and on thejr return to form release, the group doesn’t exactly try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, they deliver an “up the ante” record and come out of the gate, guns blazing with ferocity. The album is packed with solid leads, unrelenting vocals, and mediocre breakdowns, that overall make for a solid metal record. But in the end, it will be just another notch in a scene that is already overwhelmingly polluted with endless records that sounds just like this. It will be up to the masses to decide if Light This City belongs on their playlists, something the band didn’t have to worry about when they released their last record, almost ten years ago.
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