Album Review: Light The Torch - You Will Be The Death Of Me

I didn't know what to expect when The Devil You Know was reborn as Light The Torch. I have been a fan of Howard Jones since "The End Of Heartache" defined metalcore (sorry, but that is the definitive album of the genre, not "Alive Or Just Breathing"), but I am of that persuasion who adores the 2009 self-titled Killswitch Engage record, and have always been a bit disappointed in how little the genre sometimes calls for an amazing singer to use their most emotional aspect. So when "Revival" dropped, and the album was focused on clean singing and huge hooks, it was everything I could have ever wanted. The spiritual successor to that Killswitch album was finally upon us, and it was glorious. Howard is a singer who packs a unique gut punch to his vocals, and the anguish of that record hit me harder than even his more defining works. It was damn close to being the album of the year.

Nothing has changed with the follow-up, and that's exactly as it should be. Light The Torch is crushingly heavy, but boasting monstrous hooks, topped off with vocals that rip at the soul.

In just three minutes, the opening "More Than Dreaming" is a mission statement. Bursting out of the gates with a heavy groove, the song is propelled by a wall of heavy guitars that are necessary to match the power of Howard's vocals. As he sings that "no one can be invisible, addicted to more than dreaming", it's a snap back to reality after the last year spent living in a fog. When "Let Me Fall Apart" follows the theme by talking about what happens when we "waken from a dream abandoned", we are confronted with our demons in the light of day. While we face external challenges every day, the internal ones can be both the hardest to see, and the hardest to overcome.

A tenet of therapy is self-confidence, which extends both to the persona we put on in front of others, but also how open we are willing to be. In both senses, Light The Torch is embracing the concept by pushing themselves to be and sound as confident in who they are as possible. Howard's lyrics are direct and honest, not obscuring the issues he's dealing with in layers of poetic mystery. He is sharing the struggle so many go through. As he says, "we're wilting in the light and we stumble in the dark." That leaves the shadows as about the only place that feels comfortable.

But this is a record to burst out of the shadows, not wallow in the safety they provide. I was writing recently about a record that promised to give us new rock 'anthems', only to fail at the task. Light The Torch is not making those promises, but that's what it feels like they have done. Howard's lyrics are direct, and his melodies have always had an anthemic quality to them, stringing together simple melodic phrases in ways that drill into our heads and practically beg us to sing them back, to participate in the process of healing along with him.

This band doesn't stop and slow things down when the big moment comes to draw attention to how well they have done. They are confident enough in themselves and their music to let it speak for itself, and let the slight bit of subtlety be a way for the listeners to feel they have uncovered the vein of gold themselves. There isn't any wink-and-nod here directing the audience when to participate. It's more honest than that.

So how do I say an album where the song titles point to the "Death Of Me", and someone "Living With A Ghost", or especially how the narrator says "I Hate Myself", is a positive record?  Step one of getting better is admitting you have a problem, so these songs are the purge that comes before you can rebuild yourself. As long as the pain and demons are still inside, there is no room for the best version of yourself. After listening to Howard bare his soul across these songs, you can hear the weight being lifted off his shoulders, and there is a feeling of solidarity that does the same for us.

Owning your identity, and your story, is empowering, and that is the feeling Light The Torch give us more than anything else. Even if the issues they are singing about are dark and painful, the spirit of the music and those anthemic choruses gives us the feeling that we're going to make it through the other side in one piece. That theme has carried through several albums in the last couple of years that would up being favorites.

As they did on their first album, Light The Torch are able to take groove-laden seven string guitars, and fuse that heaviness with massive hooks that showcase Howard's passionate vocals. It sounds like such a simple formula, and it is, but there aren't a lot of writers who are able to pull it off. Writing anthems is hard, but Howard Jones has the knack, and the voice to pull it off. "You Will Be The Death Of Me" is as much a communal experience to me as it is an album. We're all going through this together, and now we have the soundtrack for it.