Canadian band Light Drawn In offer up an intriguing, diverse sound that toes the line between hard rock, modern metal and nu-metal with electronic elements, and they describe as “unique, energetic and organic.”
The Edmonton quintet started out with guitarist Jared Martin and Stephen Barrett deciding they wanted to make more of the music they’d been making all their lives. They discovered vocalist Dayn Armsworthy on Bandmix, which brought a talented songwriter and a unique voice to the mix. They soon brought longtime friend Tyler Kjorlein in on drums as they began to develop their sound before adding Jordan De Vos (bass, vocals and backing tracks and synths) as a result of seeing him perform on social media. However, early last year, Tyler decided to step away to focus on his family, so they completed the lineup with Lance Greenwall, who they again discovered on Bandmix.
On the current lineup, Jared explained: “The relationship we have formed together is one that sits on a foundation of serendipity and commonality. With myself, Dayn, Jordan and Stephen all being guitar players first and all being well versed in the craft has made writing an absolute pleasure. It has made all of our individual ideas translatable to each other and makes it easy to see where each other wants to go in terms of direction of the songs or even just a particular riff or phrase.”
On the sound they’ve crafted, Jared told us: “Despite having a unique sound, we try as much as we can to have every song be unique in its own right without being a different version of the last. Our sound is ever changing, as it does with all musicians, and it can be expected to hear even more different styles and influences we can incorporate as time goes on. The music we have released currently is only a tiny fraction of all the material the five of us have accumulated on our own over the years. And we fully intend on continuing to write new material and revisiting songs from the past at the same time.”
Our latest taste of this is Weaponize, which was released in March. It opens up with delicious chunky guitars that feed into a fun little fast-paced lick and rolling drums, before dropping into light echoey vocals. Heavier guitars kick in as it flows into a big singalong chorus that ends with the lines “Weaponize, Then it all turns black, And we’re all taken back, We’re taken back, As we weaponize the truth.” Big chunky guitars take over and a big scream ushers in a cool riff before dropping back into a mellow verse, flowing into another chorus. The pace drops and stabs of guitar come in as it begins to build towards a big solo and chunky chords to bring the track to a close.
On the track, Jared said: “Weaponize has been a great release for us so far, the reception has been all positive to speak of so far which is a great feeling for us. If you haven’t heard the song, lyrically, you can expect a detailed look at the truth we feel is missing in the world and why it’s missing. Musically, you can expect a song that cascades between the feeling of angst and gratitude that we all often bounce between on a daily basis in our lives.”
Weaponize follows a series of singles, including this year’s big catchy Firesale and the excellent All So Clearly and Blame, from the three-track EP 0:47. The latter starts slowly but picks up pace with a cool opening riff that feeds into an engaging opening verse. It flows into a big chorus and heavy guitar chords and drums bridge into a more intense verse. The pace drops with clean guitars and melodic vocals, before a spinning guitar and rolling drums feed into a big final blast of the chorus. Check it out in the stream below.
The Light Drawn In sound has been influenced by bands like Sevendust, Killswitch Engage, Fire from the Gods, Architects, Sleep Token, Dream Theater, Devin Townsend Project, Strapping Young Lad, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Van Halen, Soilwork and many more.
And on what inspires them to write music, Jared explains: “All of the band members at some point in our lives have gone through the battle of addiction, health or loss to some degree. We tend to incorporate the lessons of our lives with current situations the world is facing and bring them to light in our lyrics. A good summary would be that there is no better lesson than the past.”
There’s plenty more to come from Light Drawn In, who should have a new single out by the end of August and are currently in the process of writing material that could form either another EP or their first full-length album that should be released next summer. They’re also waiting on a few festival submissions and have a fundraising show for Decimate Metalfest at Rendezvous Pub in Edmonton on 30 May.
And Jared added: “Together we make a fantastic team, and we are very excited to see where our collaboration can take us. We greatly appreciate our fans and love you all as much as we love the music itself.”
You can follow Light Drawn In on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to Light Drawn In and more new music on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Metal and GigRadar Rock
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