‘’It was an absolute breath of fresh air for all of us and reminded me of the early days of Ignite’’.

Second song ‘The River’ comes right in, with no moment to breathe, it smashes into your face. Another fast paced punk song. A very political song. I don’t think I need to explain much, as the lyrics are pretty loud and clear.

‘’I wanna know
How many bodies in the river
How many children will your laws let you ignore
No, don’t let injustice be a burden
After all can’t you see who are we but the chosen ones’’

‘This Day’ opens up with a short guitar strum, followed by a fast bass line. Eli shows a different side of his voice/ on the top of his lungs, he screams the verses of this song. The choruses are the clean vocals we heard on the previous two songs.

‘On the Ropes’ opens with a slow bass line, tension is being built. After 30 seconds, the rest of the band comes in. A song with a lot of harmonic vocals in the chorus, the kind of harmonics that make you forget about everything around you and just focus on the song. At the end of the song, a kick ass fast guitar solo snaps you out of it and the song is already over.

‘The Butcher in Me’ is also a very melodic and harmonic punk rock song. Songs like these are just music to my ears. Even though the music brings me peace, the song itself is about a friendship that ended on the wrong note. I love the figure of speech in this one too. As cutting ties with somebody is usually very hard, the word butcher really implies knives and blood figuratively.

‘So can you tell me why the butcher in me wants to cut you from my life’.

‘Call Off the Dogs’ is another faster punk rock song. It was surprising to hear the screams near the end of the song. Something I didn’t expect, but very fitting.

‘Enemy’ builds up by a palm muted guitar, a second guitar joins in too, also palm muted strums, the bass joins playing the same line, the drums join, giving the song a heartbeat. Eli’s voice joins too, being the blood that streams through the song’s veins. A buildup like that really makes a song come to life. A song that shouts its meaning to you. ‘I know I’m the enemy!

The key words in this album are definitely fast, harmonic and alive. This is a dynamic record. Not one that when you’ve heard the first song, you’ve heard them all. No, it’s alive, every song is surprising, every song brings you another story ready to be told and ready to be heard.
With 10 songs, this record just hits a little over 30 minutes. But those 30 minutes are worthy to put on repeat over and over again.

Ignite is:

Eli Santana: vocals
Kevin Kilkenny: guitar
Nik Hill: guitar
Brett Rasmussen: bass
Craig Anderson: drums

Links