by Eduardo Rivadavia

Facing the Thousand is the third album from San Francisco outfit, Light This City, and second for Prothetic Records, who are quickly seeing their faith and investment repaid by a band whose rate of improvement nearly matches the pace of their playing. After a majestic, orchestrated synthesizer intro, the title track opens proceedings at a characteristically ferocious clip democratically representing the so-called ‘New Wave of American Heavy Metal' with elements of death, thrash, metalcore, and even a little black metal, if you look closely enough. Outstanding vocalist Laura Nichol is largely responsible for the latter, in fact, as she spit-rasps lyrical venom betwixt her more guttural deathly growls throughout the ensuing mayhem. All the while, her band mates seek to shine a little light amidst the suffocating darkness via some Gothenburg-flavored harmonies that elevate the likes of "Cradle for a King," "The Unwelcome Savior," "Maddening Storm" and "City of Snares" (reminiscent of Sweden's The Crown) to highlight status. On others, such as "Exile" (borderline power metal, minus the clean vocals, and featuring a rare, deliberate finale), "The Eagle" and "Tracks of Decay" (both of them copycats of In Flames and At the Gates), that same melodic insistence respectively becomes almost too distracting and rather derivative, so there's obviously a limit for everything. Also, the slightest hint of repetition does set in after about half a dozen of these, mostly full-throttle blast-beaters -- even though, pound for pound, they're still far more distinctive and engaging than the inexplicably more popular Black Dahlia Murder, whose vocalist, Trevor Strnad, actually guests on the (you guessed it) savagely one dimensional "Fear of Heights." All things considered, by the time Facing the Thousand thrashes to a finish on the furious blast-beats of "Like Every Song's Our Last," it's apparent that Light This City could still do with a little more consistency and originality, but they clearly have a head start on most of their direct competition this side of the Atlantic -- whether consumers have realized it or not.