Our Darkes Days (Limited Tour Edition)

Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba

Artist: Ignite
Label: Century Media
Released: 2007
Runtime: 46:48
Rating: 4.5/5

Trying to pin down Ignite can land you in a fun little dilemma: is this hardcore, a modern, MTV-friendly flavor of modern rock, punk, or something else entirely from another planet? The truth is, with this mix of influences Ignite have managed to stir in just enough intrigue that pretty young girls and good-time-loving, melody-sharp bearded dudes alike can reach for them with ease. They planted their mark of timelessness and the seed of addiction with the rawer, less polished calls of Call On My Brothers and In My Time, then with the more polished, heart-packed projectiles of social critique that were Past Our Means and A Place Called Home, and in 2006 the outstanding Our Darkest Days burst into the world. By chance, a good friend of mine, a huge fan of sharper HC melodicism, put a real treasure in my hands: the extremely rare edition of that record issued for the 2007 European tour, with two bonus tracks for the crowd. Like a cry of revolt at exactly the right time, the spark of this newly rediscovered old-school greatness fills me to the brim and beyond, for several reasons I’m happy to share with you.

First off, it’s a masterpiece you recognize on the very first listen, and second, Ignite are anything but your average Orange County band. The music is outstandingly polished, and more than the wall of killer guitar riffs, drums and bass, the key is the multi-octave, piercing tenor of vocal expressionist Zoli Teglas, who leaves the competition in the dust, all those singers who can only squeeze out two or three vaguely pitched guttural screams. Teglas is out of the league of such comparisons, and if you add the smartly written lyrics, which hold up a mirror to American reality and social inequality while offering solutions in the form of musical vignettes and flashes of insight, the cup is nearly full to the brim, the point where further argument isn’t even necessary. Or is it all the more necessary? This isn’t some trendy game that hooks you on first listen. Ignite are anything but commercially driven: roots, directness and an honest attitude are the big trump cards of this very listenable album, which never gives up melody for heavy sounds or the spontaneous, explosive call to turn the mosh pit upside down.

What all the songs share is flawless structure and a natural pull toward extreme catchiness, and that runs from the opening Intro onward. With the force of the heart-piercing Bleeding, every ace comes to the front: killer guitar passages, killer drums, and Zoli’s timeless outpouring of melodic fury, settling scores with everyone who tramples on freedom and decency. After September 11, 2001, the country slid into a circle of fear, and the cramp of anxiety brought, as its so-called salvation, curbs on liberties and on freedom of speech (and thought). Fear Is Our Tradition sums up everything about American society after the fall of the Twin Towers, and one catchy peak flows straight into the next, with no end in sight. This quintet of outstanding musicians brings fresh layers of musical inspiration to the table, and songs like the stellar Let It Burn, the punky, anti-tyranny Poverty For All, the poisonously good My Judgement Day and, right after it, the perfect Slowdown fill both your ears and your spirit. The inspiration is oozing from every pore, and there are almost as many reasons to put this record on a pedestal as there are songs on it. Still, I can’t skip the fact that, next to their own set of testosterone bombs like Three Years, the turbo-charged Know Your History or the Graffin-style melodic Strength, someone else’s outstanding eggs land in the bowl too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jn5AslRvko

This time in the shape of the Irish band with a seriously political edge, the outstanding U2. Ignite’s take on Sunday Bloody Sunday doesn’t compromise the dreaminess and the menace, while the guitars speed up the gears of the story about the bloody massacre of civilians on the streets of Belfast. The acoustic closing finale of the wonderfully catchy Live For Better Days wraps up the album in a way that keeps its juicy core intact and doesn’t let it fall apart over a few strums on an unplugged guitar. And then a little trip back to Zoli’s home turf, the Hungarian countryside. Picture mist over a field where Attila’s army once marched, and now a young woman’s Hungarian melody drifts across it, with Zoli joining her in their mother tongue once the electric guitars kick in. The raucous finale of the main part of the record is then topped off with two out-of-series bonuses. Last Time roars in with the force of a ten-ton hammer, and to put the cherry on top, a demo version of Bleeding fills your ears, deliberately brutal and unpolished, with the smell of the rehearsal space practically wafting out of the speakers, where Ignite pour their sweat, blood and pure melodic connection to their astral spheres of otherworldly inspiration into the chalice of genius.

Maybe it all sounds too good to be true, or you even suspect the praise isn’t completely warranted, but I’m mostly just spilling what’s chemically going on in my own body, my own soul and my own thoughts. Ignite may really be a spark off a thick melodic flint, one that knows how to kindle a nice flame of revolt, while the torch lights up all the dark corners of the time and society we live in. Maybe, for some, naive melodies don’t fully mesh with the spirit of revolution and rebellion, but I believe a call for nonviolent, intellectual revolution in the 21st century is more fitting than barbaric saber-rattling. Violence breeds violence. Our Darkest Days is an irreplaceable treatise on personal responsibility, and with its own distinct, melodically soaked, atypical take on HC punk, it gives hope that genre monotony can be built upon nicely, and that it will outlast the cloned-sounding musical universe of bands that sound like they were made from the genetically duplicated cell of Dolly the sheep, which Fat Mike keeps in the basement of his Fat Wreck Records. This rare outpouring of genius is unique proof that well-schooled youngsters from Orange County can bring something good and juicy to the game of the old veterans too. Ignite are the exception that doesn’t prove the rule that musical inspiration is somehow tied to the geographic origin of the place where young and slightly less young enthusiasts decide to pick up instruments and make something »all their own«. Only a rare few pull that off, and Ignite have absolutely nailed that state of musical zen!

Lineup

Zoli Teglas – vocals
Brett Rasmussen – bass
Brian Balchack – guitar
Nik Hill – guitar
Craig Anderson – drums

Production

Cameron Webb

Tracklist

1. Intro (Our Darkest Days)
2. Bleeding
3. Fear Is Our Tradition
4. Let It Burn
5. Poverty For All
6. My Judgement Day
7. Slowdown
8. Save Yourself
9. Are You Listening
10. Three Years
11. Know Your History
12. Strength
13. Sunday Bloody Sunday
14. Live For Better Days
15. Last Time (bonus)
16. Bleeding demo (bonus)