As Long As We're All Living, We're All Dying "s/t" 7"
[Teenage Disco Bloodbath]
This band is a duo (one dude on guitar/vocals and another on drums/vocals) but you'd never know it from the brand of crusty, metallic hardcore/punk they're unloading on this EP. Part of that's due to the fact that they've layered two tracks of guitar throughout, but regardless, the playing is tight, the writing is strong, and the recording is incredibly efficient considering. I don't miss the presence of bass guitar at all thanks to the thick and crunchy guitar tone, and the mix is balanced so that the gruff shouting vocals rest in against the music and the drums play an equal role with the guitars. The drums also sound pretty crisp and natural, so even though there are definitely rugged areas it all makes sense and works together in the end. The songs are pretty damn diverse as well. "Premonitions" opens with eerie clean guitars before plowing into a set of faster chord progressions that have some dissonance going on to keep things from being too straightforward, and the moshy breaks are pretty damn creative too, using atypical chord phrasings rather than basic chugga chugga stuff. "Burn Allston to the Fucking Ground" is shorter, faster, and has a similar thread of traditional hardcore with a beefier texture to it, and then "Amends" goes from thrash to ripping grindcore to modern sounding metalcore riffing that's ever so faintly Swedish. Closer "Slitting Your Wrists on the Company Copy Machine" is somewhat chunkier and more rhythmic in nature, tossing in a lot of caustic playing that's noisier than any of the other material, but never lacks control. The record is pressed on transparent red vinyl and comes in a black, white, and red sleeve with a xeroxed booklet that contains some live photos, lyrics, song explanations, etc. The content is pretty standard and deals with social ills, the unfortunately common problem of fashion over substance in hardcore, etc. But I have no quarrels with the pointed lyrics: "Our homes are filled with empty picture frames, Vacant stares and the shades of our dreams, I can remember caring about something, but I've been gutted and cleaned..." As a bonus the 7" includes a CD-R that has the four songs from the record on it followed by five newer tracks recorded live on the radio in New Jersey (alongside a xeroxed insert with lyrics and liner notes about the new songs). Among the newer material, "Compromised" tosses in some Gorilla Biscuits sounding melody with the heavier hardcore exhibited on the 7" tracks, and "Air Israel" is a cool instrumental with lots of the same creative picking patterns and note choices that caught my ear on the 7". But the most promising moment comes with "So Much Smoke", which starts with an excellent clean passage that's got more of an emotional bent to it - which continues once the distortion kicks in. I'd love to hear this track re-recorded with a more powerful sound, because this is great stuff. The recording on the live tracks is a little thin compared to the EP itself, but not because they're a duo, simply because the mix is sort of quiet and favors drums to guitars and vocals, so a lot of the density and detail is lost. Fuck it, though. It's great that they tossed the CD-R in for free, you know? I'll be looking forward to hearing more from these two. For a young band they're quite talented, and I have to confess that they're one of the stronger sounding duos I've encountered in recent times. Good work. (7/10)
Running time - 9:00 (approximately), Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: Premonitions, Slitting Your Wrists on the Company Copy Machine, So Much Smoke, Air Israel]
Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records - http://www.tdbrecords.com

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