From their Facebook page, SPOTLIGHTS is an "Atmospheric Bludgeoning" from Brooklyn, New York. I believe this album is their second full-length, and contains nine songs. "Beyond the Broken Sky" is the first. There are some tense tones in the beginning, and you can feel the bomb about to drop from the plane onto the earth. It drops in repeated accents, and the groove is noteworthy as well, with that guitar riff ripping upwards. "The Alchemist" features the steady beat of a hospital machine over a slow, sludgy riff. The vocals are smooth and somewhat heartless. An eerie distorted guitar riff plays in the same sandbox, though his attire isn't fitting. This song is devastatingly heavy at times, and totally ethereal at others.

"Sunset Burial" begins with a meaty bass line...the kind you want to pick your teeth with. This song has the vibes of laying a loved one to rest while others dance around and have the time of their life. At times, the music has an almost Poppy quality to it, if it weren't for the punishing thuds of bass and guitar. "Algorithmic" has another funky bass line topped with ethereal, catchy vocals. I am starting to wonder, is there anything that this band isn't capable of? The backdrop in this song is very heavy, and very dark. "False Gods" is another bass driven song with plenty of balls. Sexy saxophone notes slide into the cracks between thundering riffs, and the screams towards the end are unsettling.

"Repeat the Silence" is just a little easier on the ears at first, with a quasi-gentle riff and dreamy vocals. As the title suggests, the simple riff is repeated again but with a growing intensity. From there, massive meteors drop from the sky, punishing the earth below. "Ballad in the Mirror" is the shortest on the album, but punches your head into the dirt plenty of times along the way. When your head is done throbbing, they throw some ice cream your way. "Crawling Towards the Light" has a hastier pace with another brutal backdrop of sound. Some of the riffs hop and skip like they don't have a care in the world, while others aggressively cave in your balls. The title track closes the album. The vocalist whispers thoughtfully as light, emotional tones occupy the background. After the half-way mark, a brutal riff bubbles and comes up to the surface, and it finishes with some feedback.

What the band does best is combining genres of music that don't seem like they would fit together into their own unique recipe. It's the confidence of the band at their craft that really makes the album as good as it is. "Atmospheric Bludgeoning" very aptly describes their sound. How they can be so heavy while frolicking at the beach at the same time is really uncanny, and I mean that in the best sense of the phrase.