Album Reviews

Six years after the release of ‘A War Against You’, Orange County melodic hardcore powerhouse Ignite is back. Not just with a new album, but also with a new vocalist in the form of Eli Santana (Holy Grail), who is taking over from Zoli Téglás.

While changing vocalists is always a bit of a risky move, Ignite makes it seem easy on their self-titled album. It helps that Santana’s style isn’t all that different from Téglás and that the band has written just short of a dozen powerful anthemic tracks. Leading up to the album’s release, you already got to check out singles ‘Anti-Complicity Anthem’, ‘The River’, ‘On The Ropes’ and ‘This Day’. All of them vintage Ignite. Elsewhere on the album they get even more aggressive on the BoySetsFire-like ‘Call Off The Dogs’ and ‘Enemy’ while the highly melodic ‘The House Is Burning’ comes with a chorus that begs to be sung out loud at all the band’s future shows.

Oftentimes whenever a band that has been around for some time releases a self-titled album, it indicates a stylistic change. While that isn’t the case on ‘Ignite’, it definitely heralds a new and exciting chapter in the band’s history.

Ignite track list:

1. Anti-Complicity Anthem
2. The River
3. This Day
4. On The Ropes
5. The Butcher In Me
6. Call Off The Dogs
7. The House Is Burning
8. Enemy
9. State Of Wisconsin
10. Let The Beggars Beg