Following the recent resurgence in the popularity among the heavy metal community for slower, more atmospheric, doomier fare, there's been a gratifying glut of releases characterised as "Stoner" "Post-metal" "Sludge" and so forth, which, for those of you unaccustomed to metal-magazine jargon, means low, slow and concerned with moods of desolation and nihilism. And it's about bloody time this new Renaissance of metal bands with actual songwriting talent got some recognition. So, for what it's worth, here's some glowing praise.
With that in mind, here's the fourth album from American Sludge/Post/Doom/And So Forth metal band A Storm Of Light. And it's a fucking corker. Right from the opening moment of "Fall", Nations To Flames starts an avalanche of stumbling, cascading guitars, vocals that crackle with rage, and absolutely sublime ambient keyboard drones that create a real sense of what heavy metal is supposed to make you feel: So righteously goddamn angry you could take a sledgehammer to the face of The Man, wherever that bastard's hiding, but it'll have to wait a second because I want to listen to this absolutely delicious riff.
The mercurial presence of Soundgarden guitar-torturer Kim Thayil on this album (and old Kim's become something of a post-metal touchstone, with his involvement with Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson of Sunn O))), Boris, and Ascend of the Southern Lord Records Scene. Who are A Storm Of Light signed to? Answers on a postcard) adds a delightful frisson of rock-star attitude to three of the songs on this album. His shrieking solos, which hit the exact sweet-spot a lead guitar should, are superbly well-timed to erupt at moments when things are getting a bit too po-faced, or worse, threatening to denigrate into the same tired old hardcore-influenced chugging we've heard before. A Storm Of Light, clearly well on their way to becoming masters of their craft, know to avoid such overused metal tropes and side-step them adroitly.
Which isn't to say that this isn't for everyone; if I had a friend whose knowledge of heaviness began and ended with Pantera (and I have many such friends) then I'd have absolutely no qualms recommending Nations To Flames. Then again, if I had a friend who was familiar with such luminaries as Isis, Neurosis, Jesu, and so on, I'd happily recommend A Storm Of Light to them as well (if they hadn't already heard of them). This album is probably A Storm Of Light's heaviest to date - the vocals of singer Josh Graham put one in mind of Scott "Wino" Weinrich, and the electronics are decidedly more in the raw, more industrial sounding vein than on their previous efforts. It all comes together to have a terrific sense of emotional honesty and genuine fury to the material.
That said, this album isn't without it's faults. It can be a little touch exacting at times, with a few of the songs being a bit too similar and sounding unnecessarily padded. It's a minor nit-pick, however, and it's not going to turn anyone off. So if you're a metal fan and you are (quite justifiably) sick of the tyranny of Kerrang!-style bores (naming no names, so Children Of Bodom don't sue me) or of derivative, Neanderthal frat-boy thrash posers (again naming no names, so Municipal Waste don't sue me) then you could find an excellent start with A Storm Of Light's Nations To Flames.
8/10
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