Light from Above

I like to think of Black Tide as being some kind of 21st century answer to the legendary Death Angel. Both bands' members have been in their teens/early twenties during their prime and both bands also seem to draw numerous sources of inspiration for their material. But while Death Angel has successfully endured into the modern day, it's a little hard to imagine how Black Tide will be doing once they outgrow their drawing gimmicks...

Musically, you could describe Black Tide as being a modern day summary of everything that represented heavy metal during the 80's. Given there aren't any references to the death/black or doom metal scenes of the time but more prominent subgenres are thoroughly represented. You've got upbeat classic metal represented in the attempted grit of songs such as "Shockwave" and "Live Fast Die Young," sleazy glam metal in "Let Me," thrash in their cover of Metallica's "Hit the Lights" and a few faster breaks here and there, and borderline power metal in should-be epic tracks like "Black Abyss" and "Warriors of Time." There also seem to be a few modern influences in tracks such as "Shout" and "Give Me A Chance," but they aren't as clearly defined...

In terms of the band itself, I must say that they showcase a lot of technical talent for their ages. The dual guitars in particular play some cool riffs on occasion and can solo fairly well. Vocalist/guitarist Gabriel Garcia also does a fairly decent Bruce Dickinson impression, but I think the guys in bands such as Machine Men and Miles Beyond do this kind of thing a lot better. And I can only wonder how he'll handle some of this material once puberty is completely finished with him...

When it all comes down to it, I think this band's biggest flaw is its immaturity. I don't mean that in the Blink 182 sense of toilet humor and teen angst, but rather in the sense of undeveloped potential. With their young ages, I can't help but wonder if they should have waited a few more years to really focus their talents before they were signed onto a major label. There doesn't seem to be a lot of focus in the band's numerous experiments and the songwriting isn't quite as inspiring as it could be (That fact being uncomfortably reinforced by the numerous outside songwriters that are credited).

The lyrics also have the tendency to be rather primitive, but I think I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that. Most of it is better than what I was writing at 15, but I had the sense to throw it all away and never refer to it again. In fact, just thinking about it is embarassing. I can only imagine how I'd be feeling right now if it was all released for all the world to see...

I must also question the purpose of their cover of Metallica's "Hit the Lights." I know a lot of bands put a cover on an album or a Myspace profile to attract the attention of old school fans and to show off one of their influences (My own band will probably do that as well if given the chance...), but this cover seems to be go about it the wrong way. While there is technically nothing wrong with their version, it has none of the original song's rawness and intensity and the vocals sound extremely out of place when compared to Hetfield's yells. Personally, I think their cover of Iron Maiden's "Prowler" would've sounded a little more comfortable on here instead; it's something that Garcia doesn't sound too weird singing and the sleazy lyrical themes would help it fit in...

All in all, it's a decent debut that shows some potential but I don't think it's as good as some of the hype lets on. I suppose it'd be another good gateway band for fans of more mainstream metal. And if you feel like you've wasted your money on this, you can at least hope that it's going towards a nice college fund...

Pros:
1) An interesting variety of different styles
2) The band is technically talented, especially in terms of guitar playing
3) Even the filler songs are somewhat catchy

Cons:
1) The band doesn't seem to have much focus or direction in their sound
2) An uncomfortable presence of outside songwriters reinforces their immature songwriting skills
3) Primitive lyrics
4) A very questionable Metallica cover

My Current Favorites:
"Shockwave," "Warriors of Time," "Let Me," "Black Abyss," and "Light From Above"

Repeat, this is not a thrash metal album, this band hardly even sounds anything like thrash, so don't listen to this and expect to hear thrash, because you will easily be disappointed. Getting that out of the way, it's some pretty damn good heavy metal that at times borders on speed metal, and in certain songs even glam/sleaze. Black Tide are one of the bands that may bring true heavy metal back to the mainstream. Hell, they even have a record deal with Interscope which is saying something.

The members in this band are pretty talented for the most part, the guitarist can solo pretty damn good. While the singer isn't really good at all, give him a break, he's only 15. I'm sure his voice will get better as he grows older. Hell, at least he isn't screaming or using cookie monster vocals unlike 95% of the singers in "metal" bands today. The drummer and bassist pull their weight as well so there's no problem there.


The best songs on this album would have to Shockwave, Warriors of Time, Let Me, and Live Fast, Die Young. The first two mentioned are some pretty good speed metal songs. Yep, Black Tide prove that they know what they're doing here, as these songs are fun and catchy rockers. Though, the singer could have done away with that atrocious "whoooaa!!" part in the beginning of the Warrirors of Time. The last two songs mentioned are pretty fun, and kind of sound almost like glam metal. Let Me, sounds pretty sleazy which is a homage to bands like Motley Crue and Guns & Roses. I'm glad to hear songs like this again from modern bands.

Black Tide also do a cover of Metallica's Hit the Lights, though I really wouldn't say it's all that great. It's decent for what it is, but it's not a very good Metallica cover, mainly because of the singing. Maybe, it'll sound better if they play it live in about five years once his voice gets better. Give Me a Chance and the title track are sorta let downs as well. Again, they're not bad songs, but they could have done away with these two filler tracks as well. The formal more so than the latter.

For the most part, this is some pretty good modern heavy/speed metal. I'd let Black Tide carry the torch of heavy metal anytime. It's a good album if you approach it the right way, so don't expect to hear of thrash metal album, because it's anything but that. However, if you're looking for a more mainstream sounding new metal band that doesn't suck, than Black Tide way be just what you're looking for.

After hearing that a bunch of kids (Average age of the band is less than 20, lead singer is 15) released a thrash album and were so early in their career tagged as the future torch bearers of thrash metal I decided to give this band’s debut album “Light From Above” (which was released a few weeks back) a try. Before I start my review let me just say thus, “If bands like these especially this are the future of thrash, then thrash metal is officially dead and buried.”

We know thrash metal as an aggressive genre of metal with fast paced riffs and lyrical themes that often touch sensitive topics that encircle the society or the government. This band encompasses neither of these basic characteristics. In fact this band at times sounds like some alternative band like Breaking Benjamin or stuff like that.

The main problem that I have with the band here are the vocals. They sound extremely cheesy and because of that he pulls down the decent work of the other band members. Mind you some of the members of the band i.e. Steven Spence (The Drummer) has done quite a good job on the drums especially at such a young age.

Ok, now another problem. The lyrics. Before you read the next few lines just check the lyrical themes of some basic thrash metal bands. Kreator deals with themes ranging from war to death. Metal Church deals with themes such as inner struggles and society. Exodus deals with War, Government and killing posers. This band has lyrics like: -

“Give me a chance and you'll know
what I want to be
Give me a chance to figure it out”

Or

“Let me have you
Let me touch you
Let me get inside
Let me have you
Let me touch you
Let me get inside”.

Yes I know many thrash or heavy metal bands use sex or girls as lyrical themes but lyrics such as these are overtly amateur and corny. I mean come-on you expect these lyrics from new age alternative bands.

Also as you hear the album more and more you seemed to have listen to it. You ponder harder and harder and then it strikes you. It sounds like the OST from a Need For Speed or a Burnout game doesn’t it? It is said that this band toured with bands like “Avenged Sevenfold” and sadly this band seems to have been influenced by their music. A track on this album “Black Abyss” is a perfect such example. It sounds like some track by “Atreyu” I heard on some NFS game I played.

All these negative points already and you think it can’t get worse. They can. You can also classify the track “Warriors Of Time” as something karaoke. In this 5 min track, Gabriel (the vocalist) just keeps on going “Whoa oh ” right from the start of the track till the end (at least it seems so).

Despite all these setbacks, there actually are some good moments on this album. Some being on the first track “Shockwave” which was released as a single, the band’s first. The intro riff to this track is good (though it seems like a faster version of Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy”). Also there is this part in the title track near the 5 minute mark which has quite a good riff and is, in my opinion the highlight of the album. Add to this some well-executed acoustic parts. Also the production is quite good but you’ll be so frustrated by now that you won’t even give a damn about the production by the end of this album.

So there you have it. Cheesy vocals that sound like some alternative band, corny lyrics, video game type music, riffs that seem like a slightly modified rip offs and un memorable solos. If this band wants to make it big they have to rethink and modify their strategy or better still start right from the beginning. Overall this album is poorly written, weakly performed and extremely unmemorable. If you haven’t checked out this album till now I’d advise you to not too.

So this is the band that will carry on the thrash flag of its predecessors in the 80’s or so people say. If this is the case then thrash is dead to me and I do want to bother reincarnating it. Black Tide’s “Light from Above” is the debut album from some young dudes in Florida who have instantly gained success in the metal community. It has come quite redundant fro me to hear “oh yeah, these dudes are bringing back heavy metal back to mainstream” and then no longer to my surprise they falter. So is it just me? I do not think so. Thrash to many metalheads was not about hype it was about feeling, aggression and angst. Sorry, Black Tide but, your album was completely “Balless” (the first word that I comprised in my mind). You will find a few good songs on this album but none that will stand out in your mind for the rest of your life. They are more of songs that fade away after weeks.

Here is my definition of “balless”
Balless –Simply Lacking Balls

When I first plugged my boom box in and started to observe the album I said to myself “Oh no, not another band down tuning a whole step down.” Maybe this is just me, but doesn’t anyone notice or miss the feeling of songs written in standard tuning with the powerful E chord resonating energy through your speakers. No, now bands have to tune lower in order to prove that they are heavier. Here is a word of advice for any band members out there. Lower is not heavier. Heavier is the amount of balls you put in your music. Turn down your mids and crank up your distortion that is how heaviness is achieved. “Light from Above” has failed in the heavy section big time.

Next thing I noticed was how mediocre and boring the vocals are. Personally I am not a big fan of grunts or growls but please, show some emotion when you are singing. I quote from the song “Shockwave” “I am shockwave and I’ll take your f***ing life”- was sang like someone who really has no anger. This is the most straight up angry parts of the song; sing it with some emotion please. A cover from Metallica’s classic “Hit the Lights” is done musically flawlessly (with the exception of the guitar solo) and technically efficiently but same critism “NO BALLS”. The riffs that are composed in this album have great potential but the tonality is so very weak. It is the same stories with guitar fills, solos and drum lines. As you can see by now this is a recurring theme all across the album.

There is some good that I can say about this record. Musically these guys are excellent and very precise musicians. Some songs are catchy and up-tempo which is enough substitute for me. Most importantly these guys are very young and have aptitude for greatness. I will not hesitate to hear there next album because they just have so much potential.

So let me conclude this synopsis by saying that every great band had an X-factor to them which was usually there attitude. There high energy octane which appealed to every single band. So many bands lose this when they become more progressive and experimental. I say to these bands, never lose your X-factor you do not have to sacrifice this in an attempt to become more progressive or experimental. I also say this to Black Tide. Remember why you started listening to metal. For that X-factor or completely “ballfull” attitude. Get it back. Either that or record in the studio better. You still have room for greatness.
Sickest Songs “Shockwave” “Warriors of Time” “Let Me”

When I first heard of Black Tide, this supposed metal band that got signed to Interscope Records, I laughed. In all honesty, I laughed very hard. Keep in mind this is Interscope Records people, the label that made the horrible musical atrocity known as Limp Bizkit known to the world! Hence why when I first heard words Black Tide, metal band, and Interscope Records used in the same sentence, I thought it could only be one of two things.

The band could be another mallcore band that is passed off as heavy metal, just like Limp Bizkit was.

It can be a core band with some minor metal influences like Avenged Sevenfold that claims to be heavy metal but is more heavy metal in word then in practice.

What I got was nothing like either of those two. Instead, I got a real metal band. Not only that, I got a nice metal band at that. Black Tide plays a style of heavy metal that has very in common with bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Raven. Overall the sound is very classic heavy metal that occasionally dips into speed metal territory at times. To me, this was a huge surprise. Remember, Interscope Records is the label this band is signed to, yet somehow they are sticking true to their guns and making truly retro heavy metal. Very surprising indeed if you ask me.

Not only that, but the band writes some fairly decent tunes as well that I find myself listening to quite a bit. For a group of young men, the oldest which I believe is bassist Zack who is seventeen years old, Black Tide already has a good idea on how to write some rocking heavy metal tunes pretty well. The songwriting is pretty solid for the most part. Nothing seems misplaced or written wrongly. These guys pay a good homage to 80s metal and actually don't sound like every metal band these days that's trying to revive the 1980s (ala Warbringer). They actually sound decently out there while sounding like every band that a typical 80s metalhead would like. No breakdowns, no one chord guitar riffs, no emo whining, none of the bullshit that makes up the music your average scene kid claims to like

I hesitate to call though the songs on this album "classic thrash metal" like the press has lately. Simply put, Black Tide isn't heavy enough to be "classic thrash metal". I also hesitate to call some of the songs here power metal anthems, such as Warriors of Time or Black Abyss. They just aren't heavy enough, epic enough, and do not have much in common with power metal except for a few acoustic guitars used in the right places and some lyrical themes about battles ala Manowar or Iron Maiden at times. Overall, one could say that at times Black Tide gets a bit speed metal sounding like Raven or old (Kai Hansen on vocals old) Helloween, but for the most part they stick at a heavy metal approach to the genre that is best just left at that. Heavy metal, and nothing else

I have no problem with the vocals, I actually like Gabriel Garcia's voice a lot. His voice has a fair amount of emotion and power to it. While he doesn't go into falsetto territory at all, Garcia's voice is not a sad attempt at trying to imitate James Hetfield or some other famous heavy metal vocalist. I think almost the best way to describe his voice is to take James Hetfield's grit and toughness and mix them with the catchiness and wooing sounds of Axl Rose. That's a sort of hazy idea of what Gabriel's vocals sound like. His vocal patterns are very catchy and his voice overall is very consistent. It doesn't seem to fade out or sound lame. It overall sounds really good.

The album's mixing, mastering, and production just sounds great. I can't say that I have any problems with it. Everything sounds very clear in the mix, having a very good amount of grit and power while being all reasonably clear and eighties sounding. I especially like Steve Spence's drum tone. It's very real sounding and yet it cuts through the mix very well without cutting too much and yet without being too laid back. Gabriel and Alex's guitar tone cuts very nicely and has a tone of grit and power without overpowering Zach's bass, which shows nicely.

The main problem with Black Tide though is the musicians. Because they play basically early 80s, pre 1985 style metal, they think that the musicianship quality should be at that level. While it does allow them to play a good homage to the eighties, having three highly rudimentary guitar solos in one song is worse then having one really advanced guitar solo. While Garcia and fellow guitarist Alex Nunez crank out some nice riffs, their solos are simply not up to snuff. They are typical "biker style" solos. Just really fast played pentatonic scales using primarily alternative picking and tapping. Sometimes they just sound downright sloppy, especially the ones done by Alex. Gabriel's do not sound as sloppy as Alex does, but he's still highly rudimentary. On top of that, the rhythm section made up of bassist Zach Sandler and drummer Steven Spence are just not up to snuff. Sandler is your typical metal bassist, picking only two or three root notes to go along with the song and Spence's drumming, while it keeps the time superbly and has some nice fills is just plain slow. It's a bit faster then Iron Maiden for the most part, but it's not even power metal fast enough. Yes, not even power metal fast enough. Very rudimentary to. No blast beats, no crazy time signatures, just very simple.

Also, some times I feel the choruses in these songs, especially in Warriors of Time, Shockwave, Black Abyss, and basically every other song on the album drag on and on when they do not need to. They are short choruses that Black Tide attempts to draw out by repeating a line three or four times, and that is not the way to draw out a chorus. I sure hope the band learns this.

This, along with the fact of the member's ages, may have an adverse effect on Black Tide which I have seen. Many people in heavy metal circles who are elitist claim that the band is merely a marketing gimmick, and at times one can believe that. There is a charm to Black Tide in the fact that none of the members are in their twenties and many of them are still in high school. While these kids clearly know how to play some real heavy metal without any core influences, I'm not above saying it's totally reasonable to think of Black Tide being used by Interscope as a marketing tool to get rid of the bad image they had with metalheads, one that Limp Bizkit put onto their label. This could be a way to explain things like the rudimentary musicianship and general lacking of technicality, but in some ways that's Black Tide's greatest asset. Sure, Trivium aren't much older but do you see people saying Trivium does good at attempting to make heavy metal like it was in the 1980s? I don't think so. They do something that most other bands haven't been able to do in awhile, and that is make non modern, straight up heavy metal without sounding corny or rehashed.

So if you want a record that is fun sounding, catchy, and a good homage to the eighties, check out Light From Above. I don't think you'll regret it. I know I didn't, and it's a decent surprise for a heavy metal band and Interscope Records.

Last December I saw this band open for Avenged Sevenfold. However, when I saw them I didn't realize how truly talented the band really was. While looking on iTunes I discovered their album. At first I only downloaded "Shockwave" and "Hit the Lights" which are two very good songs. "Shockwave" has some great riffage reminiscent of great eighties bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. "Hit the Lights" however has less than stellar vocals but great re-done solos and is a fairly decent cover.

Last week I bought the rest of the album and was not disappointed. Overall there are great riffs, catchy melodies, and top-notch musicianship all around. “Live Fast Die Young” is one of the best songs on here featuring blending catchy guitar riffs and solos along with a decent vocal performance. Other good songs include “Warriors of Time” (a beautiful Maiden-esque masterpiece) “Enterprise”, and “Black Abyss” (which is the shit).

Overall, a great debut from a bunch of kids since “Kill ‘Em All” (the lead singer is only 15). This maybe very mainstream but features a lot of old school metal aesthetics that aren’t too prevalent these days. I would recommend this to anyone who likes old school heavy metal with great guitar work.