Congratulations to Light Bearer for Calling it Quits
Today Light Bearer, one of my favorite recent post-metal bands announced that they’d be joining their namesake in hell, and I’m 100% alright with that. Sometimes the best thing a band can do is break up, and unless you’re on the inside of their creative process, you probably can’t tell that the time is right. If it feels right to the band, I trust them.
When Isis announced that they would cease to exist in 2010 I felt pretty crushed. They were an all time favorite band of mine, and their last record Wavering Radiant was my favorite yet (post-metal purists I will fight you, come at me). Their reasoning was solid, though; Isis had defined a personal aesthetic to the point where it became conceptually confining, and they felt that they’d said everything worth hearing within those confines. Five years older, wiser, and with quite a bit more experience making music under my belt, I admire their decision.
Before Light Bearer, vocalist Alex CF was in a band called Fall of Efrafa. Fall of Efrafa released a trilogy of albums discussing human society through the allegorical mythology of Richard Adam’s Watership Down. Yes these are blackened post-hardcore songs about rabbits, albeit rabbits who oppress and murder each other, who inflict every imaginable form of human suffering on others and themselves, but none-the-less rabbits plucked from a young adult fantasy novel. If you don’t think that’s awesome, don’t talk to me. Anyways, in 2009 after three albums and a couple EPs Fall of Efrafa announced that they’d achieved their conceptual goals, and didn’t feel any need to further explore their sonic world. Listening back through their discography, I have to agree that their work feels perfectly curated. As an artist and a fan, it’s a humbling feat to say the least. I’m glad they knew when to stop.
Light Bearer was a remarkably similar project, relying heavily on the narrative of Lucifer, as well as Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and their demise feels equally familiar. The band has consistent lyrical themes of free will, atheism, and feminism. In their announcement regarding breaking up, they say “we leave the story of Lucifer’s struggle in many ways complete,” and I’d agree that their work feels fully realized. Whether or not they could have said more I couldn’t possibly say, but I’ve learned to trust artists who claim their work is finished.
More importantly their announcement mused “when the weight of a band starts to upset the people it comprises of, that’s when we have to take a step back and decide what’s best for us.” When band members are in disagreement, when their music becomes a burden, and when they start to run out things that feel right to say, they don’t produce good work.
I’d like to congratulate the members of Light Bearer for calling it quits! It’s a hard thing to know when or how to do, and it takes a lot of wisdom and strength. I’m happy to have listened to Light Bearer, and I’m sure I’ll continue to listen to their songs for a long time. Although a live show would have been great, It’s 2015 and chances are I’ll have Silver Tongue at my fingertips for the rest of my time on earth. So far Light Bearer has released only music I love, nothing I consider sub-par or astray.
Thanks for the music Light Bearer! Whatever ya’ll make next, I’ll be here with open ears.
