This Life
Lies About The Truth
Never Trust An Asshole Records
The album starts with ‘Life Wire’, a track which is punk mixed with hardcore in their truest forms. There are fast guitar riffs, pounding drums and a chugging bass line while the vocals are shouted either in their singular form or the gang vocal each creating a dominating punk feel from the off. Proceeding track ‘Fire Your Dreams’ carries on seamlessly and it is not until the vocals come in that you truly realise this is a different song. The heaviness subsides a little for the verses and the vocals are still shouted with a few backing shouts placed throughout.
Though the punk and hardcore sounds of this album are played well, the only problem is that every song seems to sound the same and blend into one a little bit too much. All the songs follow the short, fast, loud aesthetic of punk which although makes it authentic it can make you lose interest slightly throughout your listening.
The next 4 tracks ‘Are We Ready’, ‘Back In White’, ‘Who Order Who’ and ‘Age To Thrill’ in particular follow this trend. Though ‘Are We Ready’ adds in a very good bass solo, crashing cymbals and quick guitar chord changes while ‘Age To Thrill’ features Seb from The Great Divide on vocals with both vocals mashing well together. It’s almost too well though as at times you can barely distinguish between them, apart from one being slightly screamier than the other. There are some brilliant chugging guitars on the track that take over in the final chorus and create a really good musical breakdown.
Bass guitar starts ‘Mediatalks’ with its hollow echoing tones that reverberate around your ears, quieter guitars and softer drums are added making the opening of this one slower and more subdued than the others though it doesn’t last for long. ‘Sunseeker’ also starts well with a building riff before drums come in and completely take over again, something I think is slightly too overpowering throughout the entire album. Though the drums are very good, they are a little too loud drowning out everything else that just ends up trying to fight for your attention.
Finishing up the album with the hardcore influenced ‘Highway To Nowhere’ and the pop punk tinged ‘Celebrity’s Bells’. The former contains menacing sounding riffs and screaming vocals that are verging on blood curdling, though this subsides after the opening returning to the punk roots which is a shame as the opening was so good. The latter and last track has some more pop punk melodies that run in the guitar sounds which is a nice addition but ultimately the album ends in the same way it opened and has been throughout.
This is a decent punk album and a good first effort from the band, the only downside is it sounds like a lot of other punk/hardcore albums of the mid to late 00’s and therefore it is not really offering anything new. What they have done they have done well and there is nothing wrong with it musically but when you have heard a lot of albums like this in the past as I have the scene and the bands/albums in it just sort of merge into one after a while. That being said this is definitely worth your attention and a listen if you are a hardcore punk fan.
You can listen to the album yourselves below:
Lies about the truth by This Life
Credits
Mixtape Couture 