Reviewer: Garett

Laethora’s debut album, March of the Parasites, was a pretty enjoyable listen. I saw it as a uniquely modern take on old school death metal. Given that the band was being billed as a side project of Niklas Sundin from Dark Tranqullity I wasn’t really expecting much in the way of a follow up. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that a second offering, The Light in Which We All Burn, was being released. Apparently, this band is more than your typical one-and-done side project.  Leathora pick up right where they left off on March of the Parasites, continuing with their rather unique old-is-new take on death metal.

Laethora’s music borrows heavily from death metal’s history, building songs around big massive riffs, with bursts of speed serving as the mortar that holds them together. You will notice this as the rather mellow intro track quickly switches to the frantic drumming and buzzsaw guitar that introduces "I As Infernal", the album's first proper song. Things quickly shift to a slower, vocal-accompanied chug, moving between these two extremes for the remainder of the song. This is a good opener and fairly typical song for Laethora. The vocals are primarily a deep throaty bellow, and remind me of Domination-era David Vincent. Using a less common vocal style helps Laethora stand out, but what really sets them apart is the cold, almost mechanical production. This is not a band trying to recapture the gore-caked glory of death metal’s youth, it is a band taking an old formula and updating it with modern production and a few interesting accents. While it is easy to hear bits of Morbid Angel, Entombed, and even a little Napalm Death in some of the faster parts, there are also subtle melodic sections in tracks like "Humanae" and "Saevio". Small things like this help Laethora sound fresh, without mucking up the tried and true death metal formula that is the lynchpin of their music.

The Light in Which We All Burn is an album that will immediately sound both familiar and foreign to most death metal fans. Most of the elements that make old school death metal special are here, but it's like you are looking at them in one of those weird circus mirrors. I suspect that this album would sound indistinguishable from classic Swedish death metal if you could go back in time and send the band to Sunlight Studios to record. It is kind of a case study in the impact that production can have on the overall feel of an album. In this case, the modern feel of the album is actually one of its selling points. There are enough bands cranking out quality carbon copies of early 90’s death metal, and this is actually refreshing. Personally, I will always prefer the dank tones of yester year, but sometimes it is nice to hear a band make the effort to do something a little outside of the blueprint. This isn’t what I would call a ground-breaking, or even mandatory, release, but it is an excellent death metal album. Most importantly, Laethora are carving out their own little niche within the genre.

Release Date: April 17th 2010
Label: The End Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Ekpyrosis
2.  I As Infernal
3.  A.S.K.E
4.  World Deluge
5.  A New Day
6.  Humanae
7.  The Sightless
8.  Saevio
9.  Uproar
10.  Cast To Ruin
11.  To The Point
12.  Damnable Doctrine
13.  Alogia

Total playing time:  41:06

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Laethora - The Light in Which We All Burn

November 30, 2010