Light The Torch You Will Be The Death Of Me Album Review And New Tracklist

When Howard Jones left Killswitch Engage in 2012, it was, he says, because the anxiety and stress of being on tour eventually meant that, ​“I physically and mentally couldn’t get onstage,” an issue not helped by keeping on top of living with Type‑2 diabetes. Listening to Light The Torch​’s second album, it certainly wasn’t because of musical differences. Though not a copy of Killswitch, they’re nevertheless a similarly huge-sounding, stompy metal vessel in which Howard’s massive voice really shows its power.

The moments of full-bore metal – opener More Than Dreaming and the chonky Denying The Sin – batter solidly. But more often they lean into melody, letting testosterone take a passenger seat to a more obvious skill with a tune. Let Me Fall Apart, Wilting In The Light and Death Of Me are gigantic songs that find Howard in his sonorous element, big on riffs while easy on the ear, without being cheesy American radio rock. The keyboard washes are reminiscent of that period around 2003 where every Scandinavian melodic death metal band (In Flames, Soilwork, Hypocrisy) had at least one singalong banger per album, and where you expect a song called I Hate Myself to be a nihilistic blaster, it’s a more reflective moment in which Howard sounds as good as he ever did.\

It’s no secret that Light The Torch have had to jump through a number of hoops since their formation nine years ago; however, the nucleus of Francesco Artusato and Howard Jones has ensured this metalcore supergroup’s continuing existence.

One such obstacle has been line-up shifts and sophomore release You Will Be The Death Of Me sees their personnel wheel spin once more, with Whitechapel’s Alex Rüdinger joining as drummer and Bleeding Through’s Ryan Wombacher providing his last contribution before heading back to his regular outfit. Alex performs well across the album, most notably on future mosh anthem Living With A Ghost, and Ryan gives a strong foundation throughout on what has become his swansong.

Howard Jones, though, is the star, reminding everyone why he’s one of the best, and indeed most consistent, metal vocalists on the planet right now, whether it’s the sonorous, arena-sized chorus of Let Me Fall Apart, the menacing screams in Denying The Sin or the surprising impact of the album closer – a structurally faithful yet solid cover of Terence Trent D'Arbay’s 80s pop classic Sign Your Name.

What lets this record down, however, is partially wobbles in the production – End Of The World completely loses Howard’s opening lyrics by placing them far too low in the mix – but mainly how formulaic it is. By the time you get to I Hate Myself you can pretty much guess where each song is going, right down to when the guitar solos will kick in. This lack of deviation not only means differentiating songs is difficult, but they also don’t last long in the memory. Consequently, for all the talent Light The Torch hold within their ranks, You Will Be The Death Of Me is merely a perfectly functioning metalcore record without much else to write home about.

Having been a huge part of Killswitch Engage, when Howard Jones decided that he needed space away, the music world was happy to hear when the creative juices were ready to flow again under the heading of Light The Torch.

2018 saw the release of the debut album Revival which reached the heights of number 4 on the Billboard US Independent Albums Chart and number 10 on the Hard Rock Albums Chart and tours across North America and Europe with bands such as Trivium, Avatar, In Flames, August Burns Red and friends in Killswitch.

Combining the unique vocal by Jones with a seven-string guitar and the heavy bass line to create a crushing parallel to the soring aspects, you need to brace for some incredible metalcore that you will sing along to before throwing down. It takes no time before the huge riffs begin the assault and matched with blistering drums, the fun is immediate, and the sound is massive. Being lifted by the incredible voice you feel like you are looking down toward the destruction left in their wake as the band steamroll all obstacles.

As the tracks progress, each one takes on its own persona and being as the band whisk you away to where the writing process revolved around and with the change between clean and more aggressive vocals that are delivered by the top class frontman, the emotions are oozing through each offering.

When you think that you have the album sussed, there I am amazing cover of the 1987 Terrence Trent D’Arby classic ‘Sign My Name’ to sing along with even on the first listen as let’s be honest, we all know that one and are all more than happy to belt it out!

 Whilst there are clear comparisons between Light The Torch and the Jones era Killswitch Engage there is no denying that they are both very different bands and both easily stand on their own. They are different stages of life and we should be grateful that we are lucky enough to be able to experience both. There is no doubt that Jones is a great songwriter and vocalist but that only work with the correctly balanced band alongside and with Light The Torch, it feels like this is more than a band.

Since emerging in 2018, Light the Torch have grown stronger as a band and are now ready to unleash their sophomore album, You Will be the Death of Me. Twelve no-nonsense and no-holds-barred metal anthems to see you through the rest of 2021. It will be released on June 18th, 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records.

It really beats me the criteria PRs use to label a band in the press release they send us. However, in this very particular case of Light the Torch and “You Will Be The Death of Me” this feeling went away while listening the album track by track. At first I didn’t agree with the label metalcore because of the vocals which from where I’m standing are very good to be considered metalcore. My fan here knows how I feel about metalcore, huh? No need for saying any more, is there?

It’s interesting how the album gets more and more metalcore track by track. The first impression with “More Than Dreaming” was that the band had some hints of modern metal, but with the prominence of Heavy Metal due to the aforementioned vocals of Howard Jones. The album progresses in a strong and persistent and resilient way into more features of of what is called metal core. Besides that and above all that there are tracks which have amazing guitar riffs as “More Than Dreaming” and “Something Deep Inside” and, wow, they have even guitar solos. I say that about the guitar riffing because in metal guitar riffs are kind of hidden in the fuzz and buzz of electronic effects and all. It’s a feature that many metalcore bands adhere and, I guess, it’s one of the things that give it its personality. To be frank, i’ts not everything that I dislike on metalcore. The riffing and vocals in “Denying the Sin” are typical even though I like the punch and power they have. In fact, “You Will Be The Death of Me” has many radio oriented tracks as “Come Back to the Quicksand” and more notably “Sign Your Name” among others. Well, radio I really don’t, but Spotify or others I’m really sure. 

“You Will Be The Death of Me” has an interesting bouncing between Heavy Metal and metalcore and this is the most interesting feature about it. Vocals are the main reason that my attention was sparked to it, if you ask me. My fan knows that I try very hard to be strictly fair when I write a review about a metalcore band. I confess that sometimes I willingly avoid them, but I always give them a try. That’s what happened here with Light the Torch and “You Will Be The Death of Me.”

Track Listing:

More Than Dreaming

Let Me Fall Apart

End of the World

Wilting in the Light

Death of Me

Living with a Ghost

Become the Martyr

Something Deep Inside

I Hate Myself

Denying the Sin

Come Back to the Quicksand

Sign Your Name

There really aren’t many vocalists as good as Howard Jones in rock and metal these days. That’s simply a fact. Put him alongside guitarist Francesco Artusato and bass player Ryan Wombacher and it’s easy to see just why Light the Torch come with such fanfare. A massive debut album (Revival), the buzz around this band hasn’t gone quiet so the pressure is on for this follow-up.

Although, you probably already know the answer as if they can handle it and deliver a stonking metal album. Of course, they bloody can. You Will be the Death of Me is a banger from beginning to end, anthem after anthem that makes you want to smash your head and neck into oblivion.

The trio are making magic on this album. Tracks like Let Me Fall Apart, Death of Me (Howard’s vocals on this one are insane), I Hate Myself and Come Back to the Quicksand are so grand, so epic and so freaking heavy. It’s straight-forward metal that doesn’t obey genre conventions and always has a surprise or two up its sleeve. Some of them coming in the form of an eclectic array of effects and sounds.

Always interesting, always blood-pumping and always fun. The likes of Living With a Ghost, Become the Martyr and Denying the Sin are quite heavy on the effects but this just adds to the variety on offer and these tracks are still top shelf metal anthems regardless.