Light Yourself on Fire

Light Yourself on Fire is built on playing standard hardcore riffs through the meatgrinder of metal phrasing, just like bands like Refused and Converge did before them. The riffs are simple, but the songs aren't, and churning is a good way to describe how the guitars and drums are constantly shifting like a rolling wave in the ocean.

The album pushes through old spoken word samples, builds on top of them and uses them to push through messages otherwise to decipher through the death metal vocals. "Montag" itself is an instrumental, working through subdued atmospheric melodies over a sample of two ladies speaking about a school system, from perhaps a film from the 1950s.

Artistic device or schlocky gimmick, it's hard to care once you get through the 30-second intro of "Love and Death," which starts building slowly with the bass alone over the sample until it breaks into a lurching riff, played on an odd syncopation and time signature and bombastic drums. Though the riffs are simple at the core, the music overall is full of passion, pure anger, constant motion.

The album is only six songs long and 17 minutes, but not one moment drags, and a broad base is covered. Oh yes, there's Spanish guitar. But most importantly, the band plays precision with the impression of reckless authority. They're going wild while playing. And you just know it, too. You can feel it through your speakers.