I’ve enjoyed watching Light This City evolve from their rough and ready debut The Hero Cycle in 2003 to through their brilliant third album, Facing the Thousand , to what is now their swansong, Stormchaser, a mere five years later. The band has evolved from a mere At The Gates worship to a powerful, polished an professional act on the outer limits of metal stardom on one of metal best labels, in part to the dynamite packages of singer Laura Nichol, but mostly because the band as an entity developed and matured into excellent musicians and song writers.
Now, I’ll admit even with its foreboding horns to start the opening title track, the first few moments of the album hardly impressed me as “Stormchaser” and the intense but relatively forgetful “Fragile Heroes’ hardly signal a band calling it quits at their peek. However, on the third track (“The Anhedonia Epidemic”) and stunning fourth track (“Beginning with Release”), Light This City show why they are so good, as some incredible melody creeps into the razor sharp thrash attack and from there, the album just steamrolls into excellence, and with a closing trio of tracks that makes Stormchaser a more than apt parting gift.
With a typically tight Zach Ohren production and Nichol’s feral rasps, tracks like “Firehaven” (featuring Testament’s Chuck Billy), rip roaring “The Collector. Part 1: Muse”, as well as the aforementioned 2nd and 3rd tracks as well as the somber “Wake Me At Sunset” and stellar closing three tracks (“Bridge To Cross”, “Sand And Snow” and “Self Portrait”) rip and shred with a sense of melody and craftsmanship that only The Black Dahlia Murder seem to have perfected with the same level of consistency and quality on this side of the pond. Oh and those last three tracks? Good lord, so fucking good; from the urgent canter of “Bridge to Cross”, killer opening flourish of “Sand and Snow” and perfectly executed furious end note of “Self Portrait”, Stormchaser ends and album and career on a high note.
I have to wonder how bad things were on the road for the band to suddenly announce thier break up after recording such a great album, but I have to give Light This City credit for going out on such a positive album and on thier terms, and to know when to call it quits. Either way, I wish the members of Light This City the best of luck in their future endeavors and look forward to hearing whatever they involve themselves with in the future
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I still need to listen to this more. I’ve had so much new stuff to sink my teeth into (and a relentlessly addictive video game consuming a great deal of my time) that I haven’t been able to pay it the attention it deserves.
One has to wonder if maybe Prosthetic had something to do with their break up – Byzantine also broke up this year (on a phenomenal album also) and were on Prosthetic as well. Maybe they’re just not giving all their bands the push they need, or perhaps their passing out bad deals.
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 14:26I’m gonna put this on NOW.
on Nov 23rd, 2008 at 11:16I’ve spun this a few more times since that post above, and it is indeed pretty damn good. The second half shines much brighter, but that’s not to say the first few are bad. Good album indeed.
on Dec 1st, 2008 at 15:20