SONG REVIEW: Life Right Now - "Lights"
“Life Right Now reaches Electronic Excellence in new single”
by Jesse Smith
Life Right Now came out of the gate swinging back in 2019 with their EP “Avante Garde” which had one of my top songs of 2019 called “Wolfpack”, so I guess you could say I’ve been a fan since the beginning. The band consists of members from the bands It Lies Within and Nevada Rose which were underground heros in the electronic metalcore scene. It seems the love for heavy music mixing with more electronic elements have not gone away since Life Right Now is like the best parts of both bands blended into one. Over 2020 (we all know what happened) they stayed relatively silent only releasing a cover, but it wasn’t until 2022 the band started to drop the hammer and release some new bangers! Now, in mid 2023, the band is back and they are back hard and heavy with their new single “Lights”
Lights starts off with a very techno style intro, almost as if you’re about to hear a DJ start their set. But as the instruments kick in, they start on level 10. The main thing that I love about Life Right Now is the high energy in every single song, it always feels energetic and turned up. Unlike a lot of metalcore music today, the guitars in this track are not as heavy and down tuned but more hot and higher, almost like 80’s style guitars. The band then rides the roller coaster of upbeats and half time, keeping the song heavy at parts while still keeping the intensity high which in my opinion is incredibly hard to pull off, but this band almost mastered this sound. Vocalist Zachary Scott has super controlled and heavy screams as he trades off with Bassist & clean vocalist Justin DiMarco for the whole song not just the chorus/verse formula that most bands use and what we are conditioned to listening too. I do want to highlight Justin’s voice, it sounds so unique, so controlled and skillful that it is a perfect fit for the music they provide.
Life Right Now and especially this new song “Lights” is like blending 80’s metal with I See Stars. No one in the scene sounds like them, and aren't even close so you can’t pin them on any genre cork boards. But, this band absolutely rips and even has a sick stage gimick. They have these white jackets that glow in low light/black light and when the lights are off you only see the jackets, and seeing it live adds +10 points to their stage steeze. While having the 80’s sound, they still have the Warped Tour vibe. Slowly but surely they are bringing back the energy the scene had back when Warped Tour was everyone’s summer plans. Life Right Now deserves a lot more attention then they are getting but they just started being more active in song releases and in touring, so keep an eye on this band, they have what it takes to catch on and blow up, just a matter of time.