Ignite
Our Darkest Days

THE REVIEW

Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden, ndr), lead vocalist in a melodic hardcore band...

With this simple comparison, which may seem perhaps forced, one can already outline the distinctive style and brand of Ignite.

Despite the name not being as grand as their more renowned colleagues, the band originally from Ocean County, California (Offspring and Atreyu), has been active since 1994 and has several releases under their belt. Advocates of socio-political invectives, the group has been supporting humanitarian organizations like Doctors Without Borders and First Earth for years.

"Our Darkest Days" still represents their latest album dating back to 2006, judged by many insiders and otherwise, as their best ever, and I would add, among the best records of this decade in its field.

The particularity that makes Ignite stand out among the multitude of similar bands is the beautiful voice of Zoli Teglas, a singer of Hungarian origin, whose sublime vocal timbre, capable of reaching heights unattainable for a normal punk vocalist, further enhances the core proposal, made of captivating melodic hardcore, with a good balance between melodies and speed.

After a pleasant and quick appetizer serving as an intro, "Intro (Our darkest days)" indeed, comes "Bleeding", undoubtedly the gem of the album, and one of the best anthems of recent years, with a chorus that you won't stop singing at the top of your lungs. It even surpasses that great hit "Veteran" from the previous "A Place Called Home", somewhat reminiscent of the best Offspring in sound.

It's immediately clear how to enrich the sound output of the tracks, there is the somewhat typically "metal" inflection (naturally always with due proportions) of the pieces. "Fear is our tradition" with its melancholic flavors and wonderful choruses is another highlight of the album, while "Poverty for all" has a lively rhythmic base courtesy of Craig Anderson, laying the foundation for an epic-sounding ride.

After a scary start, "My judgment day" slows down the album's structure a bit, with its well-considered and engaging mid-tempo, the same goes for "Slowdown", while "Save yourself" fits into the band's classics, fulfilling its function as well.

However, curiously the more aggressive tracks are all packed into the second part of the album, where the trio "Are you listening", "Know your history", and "Strength", (interrupted only by the more catchy "Three years") form a respectful triptych, where "Know your history" stands out as another highlight, with stadium-choral parts, soaring flights, mad guitars like shrapnel, managed by the Balchack/Hill duo and a great rock'n'roll solo, they won't fail to ignite the pit at their concerts.

Despite the excellent songwriting and enviable compositional variety, after the successful cover in a melodic hc version of the U2 classic "Sunday bloody Sunday" (already present as a bonus track on the European version of the previous album and here remade slightly differently), the Californians, after an almost drop-free setlist, entrust the only acoustic notes of the emotional ballad "Live for better days" (modeled on Rise Against's "Swing life away") and a ghost-track with echoes of world music (where Zoli duets with a female voice) with the closing of the show.

Distributed by Century Media for Europe and enhanced also by a refined artwork, "Our Darkest Days" despite the title, shows in broad daylight all the capabilities and great class of Ignite.

A hundred of these dark days.