Lights Out, God Help Me - All Will Drown

Lights Out, God Help Me is back with a brand new, cynical album based around self-loathing, a blackened sarcasm, and an all around crunchy industrial aura. The album has been teased before with the single All Will Drown, which even went so far as to make it onto our first free compilation  BRUTAL RESONANCE: PHASE ONE. The slow and wobbly beats within the song is something I could easily describe as Anti-Dubstep. In any case, the album sees release today and thus this review is coordinating in that effort.

What shall be most shocking to any fan of Lights Out, God Help Me is that the man has put his voice to work as well as his killing floor branded music. 'Relentless' starts us off with vocals that sound like a robotically possessed demon trying to speak. The lyrics are fairly inflammatory and not suited for young children, so here's a warning for all you proper adults in the world...Not that many exactly exist anymore.

'Trash' is a fun blend of electronics, crunchy industrial sounds that reminisce a revving truck engine, along with a clean set of constantly flowing vocals. This is obviously a song all about hate and reward, with the final two lines of the song summarizing this brute's feelings: "All I am is fucking trash/But I'm still better than you". 

A sort of lo-fi sound comes out of 'Bury Me With My Money' with morbid but dance friendly attachments. The next song, 'Leech Life', will bring back horrific nightmares for anyone who ever played Pokemon Blue and Red as a child. The song uses samples from the game's Zubats as a major force. The backing synth definitely fits into the eight bit realm while the thumping, rhythmic beat overtop did wonders. I did think that the sample was used a little too much, and I think the song would have sounded much better without the constant Zubat cry. 

'Lapdance' has quite an old school industrial feel about it mixed with horror movie vibes, and LOGHM's vocals sound best here. They are kind of distorted, a little deeper, but absolutely soul sucking. Again, the lyrics in this song showcase a hateful and uncaring side of LOGHM. And I loved every minute of it. By far, this is my favorite song on the album. 

'Dead Is Better' brought forth some riveting guitar work and threw LOGHM into the realm of industrial metal. This song stood out musically as the synths worked extremely well against the more jagged lines from the guitar strokes. Also worth noting is that Acidrodent is behind the guitars on the song, and their sound is always quite a hit with me. 

While I did cover 'All Will Drown' earlier, I'll still sit here and say that this is not a song that should be passed up. 'Vitalis' provided a nice little electro-horror song with chimes breaking in every once in a while. LOGHM always creeps up on you every now and again and says, "It's been awhile since I've seen you," causing you to look over your shoulder wondering whether or not someone's watching you from behind. 

A remix of 'Trash' was included done by legendary electro-industrial whatever band  [Android/Kölon:58]. AK58's mix of the song made it much, much more stompier and heavy, Either version is enjoyable and I don't really think I can pick one over the other. 

LOGHM is on the right path of music making. He's allowing his music to speak his rage and disappointment, and in a sense All Will Drown is a piece of therapy for the man and that's respectable. His songs don't feel as repetitious as on previous albums and they also have a better production value. If that's because he's recording with new gear or because he's matured his sound I don't know, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that he's got something really going on now. 

If this is a sign of things to come, then I am well prepared for what LOGHM will bring in the future. For now, give this is a listen. It's also pay what you want on Bandcamp so there's that. Everyone likes free things. 
Jun 06 2016