Entertainment Earth

5/23/2018

Light This City- Terminal Bloom (Album Review)

Musician: Light This City
Album Title: Terminal Bloom
Genre/ Subgenre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Creator-Desctructor Records
Release Date: May 25, 2018

Full disclosure, I am a huge fan of Bay Area melodic death metal band, Light This City. Their last album, Stormchaser released a decade ago, was one of the very best album of 2008. They had put out what was to me their best work up and until that point, and then broke up. I remained a huge fan of their work listening to their music often. So imagine my pleasant surprise, when I found out that they were returning this year with a new album! 

That album is Terminal Bloom, and when I got my review copy I couldn't have a happier journalist. So, does it live up to the decade long wait? I am here to say fuck yeah and then some! Terminal Bloom is a fucking masterpiece of the sub-genre, one that reinvigorates it and the band itself. It is so fucking good that it actually feels as if no time has passed. The decade of them being apart has clearly served to make them even better than they were before, releasing their finest album, yet. 

Practically every song on here ranks a perfect five star. Hence whittling it down to just a few highlights was hard as fucking hell, but let's go right into it. The opening song "Reality in Disarray" has a beautiful and serene acoustic intro that builds and builds until it becomes an all melo-death assault. The guitar driven beginning on the awesome "A Grotesque Reflection" leads to a powerful and killer song that really shows off the vocals of Lauren Nichol. Her growl sounds better than ever and perfectly accompanies the soaring guitars from Ryan Hansen and Steve Hoffman and the driving drums of Ben Murray. 

The title track has a thundering start that builds into a furious assault that's guaranteed to get you pumped up and ready to kick ass. The lead guitar work on this song serves to further get your blood pounding. "Agents of Fate" is filled with enough rage and fury to open up a can of whoop ass on your and everyone else's ass in a 1,000 mile radius. If you want to bang your head till your neck hurts and well beyond, then listen to "Extinguished". With Nichol's anger filled vocals and the machine gun like blast beats, this song feels like getting punched right in the fucking teeth. I could sign the praises of every other song on here, but you get the idea. This album fuckin rips!
With Terminal Bloom, Light This City have comeback with all guns blazing. If anything the time away has given them the chance to deliver a thunderous and furious masterpiece of melo-death. It is a truly incredible record and very, very strong contender for album of the year. The musicianship is top notch, the vocals some of my favorite in the entire melodic death metal world, and the production superlative. I can't say this anymore clearer other than it is unquestionably one of the absolute must have releases of 2018!

5 out of 5

0 comments: