Comes With The Fall – Beyond The Last Light

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DVL Recordings
Produced by William DuVall

LA’s Comes With The Fall, fronted by current Alice In Chains singer William DuVall, regrouped in 2005 after a short hiatus and quickly found they were in a more creative mood than ever before. The EP The Reckoning came in 2006 and now their third full-length album has arrived.

The Reckoning EP contained a wonderful spread of different styles from the full-on rock of Rockslide to the blues of Chameleon Blues but with Rockslide being the only track set to appear on the full album it remained to be seen if the same variety would be present on Beyond The Last Light or whether the band would be using the EP to expand themselves a little, but keep the album a little more on the straight and narrow.

I felt at the time of the EP that Rockslide‘s raucous, catchy qualities would make it a good candidate for album opener, and evidently William and co. felt the same. The Last Light (a curious title as the words “the last light” never appear in the song and the chorus centres around the phrase “the bitter ride”), maintains the rock approach but with a more laid-back chorus. It could be argued it has single potential. The Pale Horse Rider changes things a little and shows the band don’t intend to abandon the variety touched upon with the EP.

Although it starts with some heavy chords, which continue in the verses, the passionate vocal melodies and particularly the chorus give it a much more refrained feel to the opening two. White Hot continues the slow-down, although you wouldn’t guess that from the title. Based around bass and clean electric guitar, it’s the albums first ballad and is the natural progression from Pale Horse Rider. Beautiful Destroyer then takes a step back in the opposite direction, bringing some rock guitars back in the intro and chorus while keeping the more laid back verse approach Pale Horse Rider started.

So you’d expect the next one to be a rocker, and indeed it is. Hologram leads with a big riff and bass and a full-on rock approach to the vocals from DuVall, although the questionable chorus backing vocals of “what ya wanna, do what ya wanna, wanna” which appear late on are a little too ’80s pop for my liking. Acoustic ballad Black Cross follows, exhibiting the beautifully soft side of DuVall’s voice, before grooving rocker Deadly Ecstasy, with the album’s best guitar soloing.

Still Got A Hold On My Heart is, unsurprisingly, firmly in power ballad territory, and is executed perfectly. DuVall wails with emotion over almost non-stop bluesy guitar soloing. Fantastic. Finally Fire Come Down returns to the groove-rock feel of Deadly Ecstasy with more great soloing.

Then it’s done, just 38-and-a-half short minutes. Although there’s nothing on here along the lines of Chameleon Blues or the slow-burning EP title track, the mix of rockers, ballads and groovers serves up enough variety to make this a solid listen of the kind of impassioned rock music few bands still make. Video footage on the band’s website shows their live shows to be equally passionate, raw rock ‘n’ roll affairs, so if a UK tour ever materialises for Beyond The Last Light it’s not to be missed.

“ impassioned ”

Tracklist: Rockslide / The Last Light / Pale Horse Rider / White Hot / Beautiful Destroyer / Hologram / Black Cross / Deadly Ecstasy / Still Got A Hold On My Heart / Fire Come Down

Photo(s): Marty Temme | www.martytemme.com

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Hard Rock, Comes With The Fall