Jayce Lewis - Jayce Lewis

Jayce Lewis is a Welsh industrial metal artist who has, somewhat ironically, been making the biggest waves over in Asia, specifically in India where he is one of the biggest rock stars on MTV; but thanks to a tour with Gary Numan as the opening act, Jayce has been gaining more popularity here at home in the United Kingdom and in the rest of the Western world.

'Jayce Lewis' is the self-titled debut album and it is both wonderfully refreshing and also nostalgic, harking back to the alternative metal of the late '90s and early '00s. I hesitate to use the term "nu-metal" for fear of putting people off, but it's hard to deny the influence here of artists like Fear Factory, Linkin Park and Orgy, although Jayce Lewis does not owe a strong debt to any of these influences, being of a decidedly much more industrial-tinged sound than any of these acts alone. While Jayce claims Gary Numan as a big influence, you won't really find it here in his sound, as Jayce's form of industrial is much more pop-friendly than the darker, moodier, Nine Inch Nails-saturated releases of Numan's in recent years.

Jayce combines catchy distorted guitar riffs with addictive synth lines and uses both acoustic and sampled drums throughout most of the tracks, sometimes alternating between the two. What is evident throughout the album is a strong understanding of pop music and traditional song structure. This is one of the most radio-friendly industrial albums one could ever come across and Jayce's vocals are primed for consumption by nearly every audience imaginable.

It's mindblowing that Jayce can be such a talented multi-instrumentalist, recording and playing everything himself, as well as being a strong singer and lyricist. His vocals range from deep and brooding to the sky-high soaring of the album's huge choruses, and it's notable that the light effects such as chorusing harken back to the vocals of alternative metal in the early '00s, such as Orgy.

The production of the album is stellar, although one may occasionally note the bedroom-studio feel of some of the tracks. However, I believe this gives Jayce's sound a characteristic feel of authenticity often not found in the hyper-polished mixing and mastering of today's mainstream rock bands and it gives the album a feel that is as idiosyncratic to Jayce as his songwriting approach.

Standout tracks include the pounding, nu-metal riffage of "Solitaire", the electro-rock assault of "Passes", and the synth-industrial groove of "Electric Medicine" (which has an excellent music video to accompany its release as the album's final single). The acoustic "Eratone" evokes classic Metallica, while the last proper song, "Paradox", is hugely epic in ambition and execution.

There's also a decent remix of Icon at the end of the album, where Jayce treads into the more synth-heavy territory of industrial that wouldn't sound out of place on the Metropolis Records label, but it's the off-album remix of "Passes" called "Passes II" that really shows what Jayce can do when he drops the guitars and goes wild in the synth-heavy direction of industrial. "Passes II" also was given the treatment of it's own music video which is worth checking out. It's notable just how many music videos this album has given birth to, actually, and they show an interesting visual side to Jayce's music project.

Having witnessed Jayce play with his supporting band live, both as an opening act for Gary Numan and headlining at his own gig, I can attest to the sheer power that this album contains when heard live and in Jayce's delivery of performing the songs, using sequenced lighting and with large screens displaying unique footage shot and edited in montages that accompany each track. He is as excellent a live performer as he is a recording artist, which is a rare quality these days.

I have loved Jayce Lewis for a couple of years now and I eagerly look forward to his second album which is currently in production. If you haven't checked him out yet, this is a guy to keep an eye on, now and in future years.
While some may claim his sound is ten years out of date, I see his music more as a continuation and evolution of that particular strain of alternative metal rather than an outdated relic of it.

This is a strong debut album, and he is bound to go from strength to strength in future releases. Aug 20 2012