Life in Your Way "The Sun Rises, and the Sun Sets... and Still Our Time is Endless" CD
[Indianola]
Hmmm, this isn't that bad, I thought it was going to really suck for some reason. It's not groundbreaking, but I guess it's almost somewhat original in a sense. It's melodic, metallic hardcore mixed with emo, and the results sound almost identical to a fusion of Harvest and Thursday. Scathing screams, nice singing and vocal harmonies, aggressive rhythms, melodic arpeggios and lead lines, smooth clean breaks, and so on... but what's working in their favor is that their songs, while not great, are pretty well composed, and they have some slick ass riffs that are mildly technical enough to stay interesting. There's a lot of guitar layering and interaction between hard panned guitars, the rhythm section is strong and doesn't cater to simplicity, and they don't throw in nutty changes all over the place or get too crazy with anything. The riffs flow pretty well and the songs are of tasteful lengths and all that. Upon first listen the recording got to me a little bit, but as my ears adjust to it I'm not 100% sure why. There is indeed room for growth, but they're in a decent situation right now. The vocals are a tad loud, but the guitar tone is good, the bass tone is excellent, and I like the density of the percussion. Really all they need is a bit more brightness to the high-end tones, allowing the guitars and bass to hold more room in the center with vocals falling in with the music. Visually things are somewhat interesting, but a bit busy on some level, as the booklet folds out from the center and is sort of made out to look like pages from a book (text and illustrations) that have been mounted with photo corners. It's kind of a neat idea, and the illustrations can be cool, but things seem overbearing and cramped in areas. Lyrically I'm not really into it, they're not cheesy or anything like that, it's just your usual personal stuff, and it's not approached in a way that strikes me as particularly different or meaningful. I definitely appreciate what this band is doing, but even though I can cite their strengths, my key problem with this disc is that for some reason it's not memorable. I listen to it and I'm just like, "Ahhh, that part's cool... I like that riff..." but none of the songs really catch me. There's a ton of potential here, but they need to do something to make their delivery more forceful. Not bad... not bad. (6/10)
Running time - 34:10, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Rewrite My Concepts, Behind Unseen Walls]
Indianola Records - http://www.indianolarecords.com

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