Light The Torch - Revival (2018)

It has been a while since we heard from the guys in Devil You Know, and there are good reasons why. Howard Jones and co. are not the devil we knew anymore, because they have been fighting with some legal mumbo jumbo for the rights of the band name, so they were forced to completely change it to something fans would not recognize. It is still the same 4 guys playing their roles, and the music is still modern metalcore, only difference is that they are now called Light The Torch. So technically, "Revival" is the band's third record, even if it is the first under the new name, and it also marks a fresh start for the band, to put all the drama behind them and to once again focus on the musical side of things.

Frankly, I am quite glad that the band is still going, for their first two records are not all that bad (at least in a "super group" standard), nothing overly original, but certainly enjoyable little pieces of music. "Revival" does not steer away all that much from those album, except for one clear thing, and that is that it is a lot softer than its predecessors, which is something that might divide the fans, even if the core is still very much the same.

There is simply not too much crushing brutality in here, instead the focus is shifted to more catchy and clean music. It sort of brings me back to the soundtrack of the mid 00's NHL games, bands like Jimmy Eat World, Alien Ant Farm, early Avenged Sevenfold, and prime Papa Roach ("She Loves Me Not" baby!). I can see a lot of you cringe already, and I understand it, because even if I might have my nostalgia goggles on for those bands, they do not apply to someone who tries to recapture the magic in 2018.

Thing is though, I do not think Light The Torch is doing this on purpose, it is just an unlucky coincidence that their newer approach sounds kind of outdated from the start. There is still a lot to enjoy though, mostly thanks to a really strong delivery of singer Howard Jones, who balances his deep, manly clean vocals with some nice screams to boot. His biggest moment is in "The Safety of Disbelief", where the emotions are really coming through with some powerful execution. The rest of the band? Sorry, but they are a little too anonymous here, the riffs and solos (the few that exist) are far from memorable, and the rhythm instruments are not doing anything extra to add anything special.

My biggest pet peeve with "Revival" though is the amount of fillers in here. There are 12 songs in here, adding up to a play time of a modest 43 minutes, so the album is not technically a drag, but you can definitely feel how loose it is. The first half is pretty good, with some nice songs like "Die Alone", "Calm Before The Storm", "Raise The Dead", and the previously mentioned "The Safety of Disbelief", but it starts falling behind around the halfway mark, with some really boring fillers. Not even the ultra heavy "The Sound of Violence" can salvage this fall (the only song in my opinion that would fit nicely with the two first albums).

Nah, this album is certainly a disappointment, and it is not because the band has become soft after the name change. "Revival" to me is a boring mess of an album that feels longer than it really is. It might have about 25 minutes of good to okay material, but even that is mostly run of the mill with what the band is truly capable of. Follow my advice, forget about this record and focus your ears instead on "The Beauty of Destruction" and "They Bleed Red", those are much more interesting albums. So yeah, this revival was no success by any means, let us hope Light The Torch bounce back to winning ways.

Songs worthy of recognition: The Safety of Disbelief, Calm Before The Storm, The Sound of Violence

Rating: 4,5/10 Viruses

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More reviews of Light The Torch
The Beauty of Destruction
They Bleed Red