Ignite – Our Darkest Days

Ignite is one of those bands that seems to have been around forever, and I just never got around to listening to them much(I had maybe three songs on my computer), so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this album. All I knew was that I liked what I had heard and I had been wanting an Ignite album for a while now. So their new release was a perfect opportunity for me to finally hear what they actually sound like. I must say, the vocalists voice isn’t as hard as I would have expected from such a influential hardcore band, it almost feels like it doesn’t belong at times. It sounds good though, probably because he knows how to control his voice as opposed to an incoherent scream(which I have no problem with). The songs are very fast though, so regardless of vocals that I don’t usually associate with, I was really enjoying it by about the third or fourth song. The guitar riffs are pretty fast, have absolutely no chuggy moments, and they seem to have spurts of technicality, although the riffs remain fairly constant. I had a problem picking out the bass like usual, it seems to be just back-up noise I hate to say, unless there’s something I’m missing(which is likely). Then there’s the drums, which didn’t stand out as much as they usually do for me, probably because this band is focused more on the vocals and guitar parts than anything else. The lyrics to the songs are pretty good, there’s a bunch dealing with war, some about personal toils, and a cover of Sunday Bloody Sunday.

I’m sure that if you’re already an Ignite fan, you’ll probably enjoy this album. I’m just not sure how much they changed from their last cd because as I said earlier, I haven’t listened to much by them. My friend who had heard either none or very little Ignite found that the guys voice was annoying. But I wasn’t that bothered by much, except that there’s “secret” material after the last song listed. Lately I’ve been annoyed by this, bands just don’t put an unlisted track in, there’s a gap between the finish of the last song that can last upwards of a few minutes and eventually goes onto some other song. Luckily on this cd, the gap was only about a minute, so I didn’t find myself sitting in silence unknowingly. The secret material on here is interesting, since the vocalist isn’t exactly singing in english, I’m not actually sure what he was speaking, but I digress. This was a solid release and I’m sure I won’t be the only one enjoying it in the near future.