CD Review: A Light Within - Epilogue (Post Metal, 2018)

A far more accessable record compared to the both previous releases. Yet it's far from being mainstream.

A Light Within Epilogue EP cover, (c) by A Light Within, used with kind permissio

A Light Within are a band with a own sound. Their music comes around more centered of feelings than of planed structures. It's all about the message and the expression. The music takes you to other places no question.

Summary
This EP has put a heavy eye on loud and more direct sounds. The tunes put the sound more to the front of the listener. You don't need to dig that deep anymore to get to the point. Anyway there's still room for a lot of sounds in the silence. Working for the first time with producer Paul Malinowski (Season to Risk, Shiner, The Life & Times)  and directing mastering duties to Acle Kahney (TesseracT) surely helped to develop the band's sound further.

The best example as for me is the opening number "Shells". It's loud and rough but taking a close ear to the vocals touching in to the sounds they give a deep message with it leaving a aftertaste of feelings in the broad waves of music. It's those moments that you'll soak up what makes A Light Within so special and stand out.

"Chemical Drive" invites to enjoy the moment and let yourselves drift. The melody and main-theme comes around relaxed. Maybe the most beautiful track that builds up slowly piece by piece to end in much rougher spheres. The drums are coming clearer and the bass on "An Educated Gentleman" surprises with raw attacking. It's a unusual tempo the band presents on this one. Compared to the older material songs like this one come quicker to the point plus there's more feeling of movement in them.

"Surrounded By Astronauts" is the most complex song of the package. It's sound feels like the elements are fighting a bit against each other. It makes it hard to get to the core with the massivity of the sounds reaching your ears.

Purchase-Link and EP-Stream
"Epilogue" comes in three formats. The download in a format of your choice from Bandcamp or a handy Digipack CD are a good pick to every lover of music. They come for the fair pice of 4 or 7 US Dollar.

But the best is the limited tin case. Having checked out the quality of it from "Body Matter" (the previous EP) with my own hands and eyes I can say it's handmade but professionell and with high quality materials. Be quick those gems are going fast and these one's are limited with handwritten numbers on the backside. It's also available from the band's Bandcamp store.


Finally follow the band with Facebook to see how the journey will go on.

A Light Within stream new single from the upcoming EP

So the clocks are mercyless ticking down the last hours of 2014...
What shall be done left before a new year will begin?

Don't miss out the chance to do something special on day number 365:
hear the new single from A Light Within already today! It will be released at the end of January 2015 but you can already listen to a stream of the full track "Between Shores" on the pages of Ragnarok Reviews. Very haunting and epic atmosphere on this one. Made my last day of 2014 a very special one...

The next show of the band will be on
Friday, 9th. January 2015 21:00 (CST) at the recordBar in Kansas City
If you would like to sneak a bit more into the upcoming EP don't miss out my article about the vocal recordings sessions as well as more clips from the recording process I posted some time ago.

Update 2015/01/17: The new song is available for streaming and download on the bandcamp page from A Light Within on a pay-what-you-want basis. Since it's such a great track I include the stream here as well. For me this track comes with a very haunting and blistering atmosphere. The intro perfectly rounds out this song which offers it's full bandwith and content only to those who listen to it several times...

The Dry Mouths let you listen to Cold Mind from the upcoming record

How cold and calm can you keep your mind in extreme personal situations? Test yourselves with the new song from The Dry Mouths!



The band The Dry Mouths are a Alternative Rock band from Almeria, Spain. Their music is a mixture between the rock of the 90′, stoner and the experimentation. The band has been influenced from Nirvana, Tool, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. So far they have released 3 albums: “Lost Bow Case Eckard” 2010, “Moons True Delay Lenght Wah Foo Era” 2012 plus "And Show Us" in 2013.

(c) by The Dry Mouths, used with kind permission

At the moment the band is preparing the release of their upcoming new EP which will be entitled "2 months". To give the people out there a idea of how the new songs are going to sound like the band has released a first full song for listening, it's the track "Cold Mind".

I like the music in this song very much, the song kicks in very straight. It's hard and dry and comes to the point. It comes with very raw sound which you could imagine to come directly as the if you were going to see the band playing live or doing a rehearsal.
The refrain is a kicker which hopefully will let people scream along at the live shows. Could imagine this going down live very well. The solo makes one feeling a bit nervous I must admit. :-)

The band is going to do a show together with Demiurgo on December the 12th at the Sala Planta Baja in Spain. For more details check the event webpage. Tickets are going for only five Euros at the presale, at the doors that evening tickets will cost 7 Euros.

If you want to keep an eye on the band don't forget to like them on Facebook or visit their website for all the informations about their past and upcoming releases and tour dates.

A Light Within shows writing vocal session clip for upcoming EP

The Alt-Rock / Post-progressive band A Light Within is working on new material for the next EP. Having made their first step with the release of the "Preface" EP which can be heard in my review about the release the band is preparing the follow-up mini-album these days.

This snippet shows the process of writing vocals to a live instrumental take of "Between Shores". I've never seen such a teaser before, but it feels like it takes one directly into the creative working process the band is currently in.

Not one of the "usual" studio impressions though. Very cool vocals and I also like the style of the video that fits to the music. It feels a bit haunting and the atmosphere is very tight. I've also had a interview with the band a while ago so head over to find out more about this outstanding band.



The band will play two liveshows in the upcoming time:

Oct 23
The Riot Room
Kansas City, MO

Nov 08
with Various Hands and The Travel Guide
The Bay, Warrensburg MO 64903

Update 2014/11/07: The band has added two new snippets from the recording sessions to their Youtube channel. They used video in photoshop! Just click below to see them both plus all the other stuff that the band has uploaded so far.

A Light Within returns with snippet from the upcoming EP

A while ago we here at metalunderdogs had a interview with the Post/Progressive Alt Rock band "A Light Within". The band also gave a little info about what to expect from the upcoming EP the band was preparing at those days.

By now the songwriting and recording process made some progress and the band recently revealed a first short, but in my eyes very cool teaser so we can have a idea of what's going on. Just sit back and enjoy the little preview below.

If you want to stay up to date about further developments just make sure to pick the RSS feed featured on the top of this blog or have a look at the bands Facebook page or the bands presence on Bandcamp.

Update 2014/07/25: I oversaw that there's another teaser for the track "Glaso" online so I added it here today.

CD Review: A Light Within - Preface

Note: If you have a own band or project that you think might fit in well here for a review or as a presentation / introduction please do drop me a line or two here in the comments section or please see my profile for my E-Mail adress. I do appreciate new suggestions very much!

If you're having troubles writing in English please send me a E-Mail in your preferred language or use the free Google Translator to transfer your message to English. I also use that tool, it's of course not perfect but I think it will mostly likely work out for our purposes.

Short introduction

A Light Within are a  Post/Progressive Alt Rock band from Kansas City, MO USA. The band started as did so many other bands before, from the demise of the band members previous bands. With no planned direction, a bond was formed and a voice/sound began to develop and be defined. The first EP “Preface “ was recorded by the band in 2012 and was mixed by Kyle Brandt and released in 2013.

The EP is a concept based upon a reflection of one’s life as the end draws near. “Aged eyes gaze upon the vast ocean through the window in the living room. Attempts to recollect life start with what little is known of birth. As these memories strive to keep the lungs breathing, and the heart beating, they slowly trickle from the mind one by one; releasing the will of existence. As questions of life arise, so do questions of death; for the first has been experienced and the latter may be welcome.”. (These notebook pages contain substance of a persons mind, body, and soul while their time was spent on earth.)

Short Summary / Player / Download Link

The band has a beautiful sound, it's very spheric music letting you drift to a very outstanding and unique experience. It's well worth a listen and I did so many times and every time I find out more details that I think I missed out before. If you like bands like Pink Floyd or Deftones I think you'll love the very dedicated music the band creates. Listen to this one in a relaxed surrounding with eyes closed then it comes it's best giving you imaginations unknown.

The concept of the record is also very well worth taking a look, not so many albums come with that. The lyrics can be found directly on the Bandcamp page, so have a look at them if you're interested in finding out more about this. I think it perfectly fits to the sounds the band provides at the album.

"Preface" comes for 3 Dollar as a download from the band's bandcamp page but you can also order a physical CD for only 5 Dollar plus shipping and handling. Check out the stream right here and read my track by track review to find out if it meet's your taste.
If you'd like to stay in touch with the band head on over to Facebook and give their site a like click.

Track by Track Review

1. Page # 32 (Morning)
The song starts very slow. Yes, it feels like you've just been woken up. The epic dimensions of the album can be felt straight from the start of the EP. Vocals come in slowly, distorted vocal lines mix in with a lot of melody and reverb. Some drums come in towards the end of the song, giving it a slight movement forward. It's overall a very spheric sounding world you softly are introduced to. Fits perfectly to the concept of the record.

2. Page # 18 (Grin)
A clock wakes us with a monotone signal. Softly a melody rushes in and soft tone but clear vocals add a lot to the feelings. The song then changes a bit more towards a edgy piece of sound, few drums and much distortion can be heard giving it a raw note before some softness gives you a breath. A climatic end gives some good feelings to the mid of the song. The vocals are a bit streched giving it a bit more good vibe to it. Very ghostly ending with much echos towards the end of it. Some strange words, very distorted bring the track to the end fading out towards the final track of this recording. Page # 18 (Grin) is my favorite track of the EP.

3. Page # 66 (Sixes)
The most moving song of the package. Starts with some guitars and clear guitars in the beginning, then we fastly go over to some experimental keyboards. Hard to take, few silence before the hard and very distorted part rushes in back again. Again with some distorted vocals giving the track it's very own charm.  The end comes in very heavy, very powerfull - giving it a heavy feel to it. A last raw line spoken by the voice, before a soft tone melody guitar riff fades the track to it's end. Let's hope for more to come to continue the conecpt. I surely would love to know how the next step turns out. How will it sound, how will it feel? Let's keep an eye on this...

24 hours of concert footage over Sylvester / New Years Eve

Tomorrow starting at 6 'o clock german TV station 3sat will broadcast the whole day and night concert footage. You can also watch this via the web stream at http://3sat.de/webtv/?40430

Announced bands so far include Muse, Emeli Sandé, Rammstein, Madonna, Woodkid, Pink, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Pur, Supertramp and Alice Cooper.

Have fun and have a safe going over to 2014, read you there!