Light Yourself on Fire

When I think of Tampa, Florida, and its surrounding area, a few things are called to mind immediately. Beautiful white sand beaches, the immaculate Sunshine Skyway bridge, and St. Angelos pizza in the nearby city of New Port Richey. All of these are pleasant thoughts, as is how I regard most of Florida, but Light Yourself on Fire are doing their damndest to ruin all of that.

Natives of the lightning capital of the world, they take the speed out of Converge and the intensity out of Deadguy to craft a sound that’s as hollow as the overused bass drum. As if the band and label (Kiss of Death) names were not indicative enough as to the creativity-lacking music that would potentially pack the disc, they reinforce any preconceptions one might have and add some blast beats and breakdowns to really round out the sound.

With no song breaking the two-and-a-half-minute mark (thankfully) they limit themselves to structures conducive to bands who can turn the world upside down on a moment's notice. Converge can pull off the minute-and-a-half long track because the amount of intensity they fill that minute and a half with is more than some bands, say this one, can fill an entire EP with. It’s not laughably bad, which is what I was expecting, but there’s only so many times that a guitar can screech and a singer can growl before one makes the determination that the well’s run so very dry. It’s unfortunate that very same determination was not made by the members of the band during the writing or recording processes.

Everything in these 14 minutes simply echoes the feeling of boredom.

“Rickshaw” displays a set of musicians firmly entrenched in the idea that repetition drives an idea home. While this is true in some cases, the repeated guitar squalls after a quick chord progression that is done over, and over again for over two minutes does not breed familiarity, it breeds contempt. Too many other songs fall prey to the same lack of artistic vision.

Some of the band's own words will sum up just why their name will be forever engrained with the phrase “mediocre metalcore:” "Impossible and opening to a new line of repetition, those are actions where you lead the same boat full."