### Let The Night Roar: Let the night roar

#### 13/09/10 || The Duff

Some of you don’t benefit from the privilege of Lord K’s one-sentence review snippets when describing a band’s sound before administering the command to knock out an handful of paragraphs for the label’s contentment, but Let the Night Roar would definitely inker towards power metal if falling short of thrash by moniker alone. Luckily, the Sweden’s answer to God beheld in brackets á côté the band’s name High on Fire, Motörhead and… yeah – you can see where I’m going. The former is a goddamn formidable component of metal’s advancement, the latter one of the Holy trio alongside Sabbath and Led Zeppelin (plus Lemmy’s legendary status as most loved man by the opposite sex in all time and space); I had nothing to lose.

And fucken shit balls, this band is fantastic; slow, dirge-y riffs that sound like a cross between Neurosis, High on Fire (especially with the guitar tone) and, if you’ve heard of them (if you haven’t then what are you waiting for in getting your dick enwrapped in pussy?) The Mighty Nimbus. Their MySpace lists Celtic Frost too, but I could never understand such a band – doom/sludge/stoner is what you get, catchy enough to make your head bang violently, gritty enough to wear their tee and have people take notice of you; no need to compete in the retarded YouTube generation to get your clearly underrepresented individuality recognized amidst a shitstorm of regularity, am I right? Support this fucking band!

The drawback of course is, as mentioned, the music being dirge-y; not slow-paced to the funeral doom standard, but remarkably simple for the most part and very rarely lifting off despite an influence like Motorhead – think the rawness of High on Fire with the lethargy of Neurosis, with some excellent Pike-esque vocals meets larger testes and an infrequent number of tried-n’-true sections that marginally discolour the album’s quality by making the listener feel “Holy shit! Are we still writing riffs like this in the new millennium?”. Not much of a marring as you’d think, as such sections tie in the many juicy morsels very comfortably, but for an ex-member of Leviathan aaaaaand Malevolent Creation (remember that first album of theirs?), you’d expect a more mature musical outlook at times – more professional than what appears at times a “fill in the gaps” approach.

The production is a no-frills affair, buzzsaw and dirty, the drums/guitar combo cumbersome and heavy rocking, but it is the vocals that are the chief highlight for me; the choruses are catchy (“Kill Yourself” will have you throwing the horns if your metal is worth your salt), and the overall delivery is full-throated, beer-swilling, battlefield goodness.

Let the Night Roar have vastly overcome any prejudice set by their moniker, crushed me efficiently and thoroughly, but as to their worth, well, it all boils down to the quality of the songs. These are overall catchy, heavy, but too straightforward for anyone into the subtleties of a pioneering act like Neurosis; I would recommend recently covered band Kongh if you side more with the sound of such, but if Black Sabbath/High on Fire is more your tipple, then give this a go.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Meteor City Records
- Website: Let The Night Roar MySpace
- Band
- Jeff Juszkiewicz: vocals, guitars
- Gregory Frank Knap: vocals, guitars
- Adam Gleason: bass
- Hunter Cook: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Sleep
- 02. All Costs
- 03. Blood for Blood
- 04. Let the Night Roar
- 05. Almighty
- 06. Bow
- 07. All Costs
- 08. Kill Yourself
- 09. Holy War