Released in 2006, It’s Amazing What You’ll Agree To When You’re On Fire was the second offering from North Walian five-piece Lantern. Consisting of thirteen tracks, it is an extremely strong mix of songs that look set to go down a storm live at their upcoming shows – they are going to be playing a couple of one-off shows in early July.
Introduction track Waiting For The Rain is a great way to start the album, beginning with just the sound of rain, then steadily building up into a cacophony of noise before the first “full” track, Blood 2 Dust kicks in with full force. The opening guitar attack is nice and heavy, practically punching you in the face with sheer energy before the vocals begin. Singer Daniel’s voice complements the instrumentation perfectly and the clean vocals are a nice contrast to the overall heaviness. The track fades out at just over two and a half minutes, making you think it’s over, before bringing it back with some wonderful harsh vocals – which is a great touch.
Title track It’s Amazing What You’ll Agree To When You’re On Fire begins with some brilliantly punctuated harsh vocals and is a stark contrast to the track prior to it – it showcases the versatility of the band and it works really well, before it slips into a well-placed slower and relaxed section. This wouldn’t work for some bands, but it does work with Lantern, which is good to hear.
My Favourite Way To Lose A Friend is one of the more interestingly titled tracks of the album and is a strong track with an absolutely fantastic drum line in it. I particularly liked the way it ended – the guitars were brilliant! Following this track was Infinity Drop. The introduction sounded out of place at first, but as the song proceeded it grew on me and whilst it isn’t one of the standout tracks of the album, it is by no means a bad song. The vocals in this one are absolutely massive.
Hit By The Hearse is where the album gets really interesting. The shortest track of the album, it packs quite a punch at just under three minutes and is fast-paced from start to finish. Definitely one of the best tracks of the album, and it leads in nicely to Looking Daggers, which is possibly the best track on the whole album. The blend of guitars and vocals is top-notch and it just made me want to bang my head to it from start to finish.
Thinner is an interesting track. A live recording of them in the studio, it’s almost like a jamming session that showcases the whole band’s fantastic playing. It even leads into a completely unexpected and brilliant cover of Master Of Puppets at one point, blending seamlessly into the song!
The album closes with Top 10 Psychos Of the 20th Century. The track begins fairly slowly with an iconic Charles Manson quote over the top of the music, before instantly gaining energy and aggression. It really ends the album on a high and as a whole, the album really showcases how much this band have to give.
If you have the chance to catch them at one of their upcoming shows, you absolutely must – I have a feeling they’ll really put on a show to remember, if this album is anything to go by.
9/10
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