Liferuiner
No Saints
7.1
Synopsis:
Rumors of this band being released from their Rise Records contract due to being ‘too violent and ruthless’ had my interest piqued, but all we simply have here is yet another hardcore band along the lines of Black My Heart, Built Upon Frustration, Redline, Sleeping Giant and Full Blown Chaos that make the mainstream hardcore scene (Hatebreed, Terror, First Blood, etc) sound like total pansies.
Review:
While I generally despise the show-ruining cretins that follow hardcore, the music itself I still enjoy, and it's bands like Quebec’s straightedge moshers Liferuiner that make it enjoyable for me.
Despite the presence of a few deep ‘reee’ growls and some absolutely HUGE breakdowns that register along the line of newer Ion Dissonance, Emmure, The Acacia Strain and Whitechapel, that border on deathcore, Liferuiner are still more of a regular hardcore act due to their pedestrian pacing between breakdowns. But oh, what breakdowns; with a full array of exaggerated bass drops and bounce worthy to the extreme. Pretty much each of the monstrous tracks have a jaw dropping moment of utter heft that will rattle the neighbor’s furniture (sorry Mrs. Griswald) and the inside of your skull, in part due to the massive Antoinne Lussier (of Ion Dissonance) production.
Tracks like “I Don’t need the be Straight Edge to be Better Than You”, “Saints and Sinners”, “”The Alphabet Never Made Sense to Me”, “You Call Me Son, I Can Call You Dead”, “You Have a Body Like an Hourglass, And a Face That Could Stop Time”, “If Being Fake Was an Olympic Sport…” and well, every one of these bruisers is just a sheer exercise in pretty devastating hardcore prose, despite the inane titles and knuckle dragging, chest beating straight edge aesthetic. However, you pretty much wait for each song to hit its breakdown down whether it starts it, finishes it or deliver a mid song beatdown--the rest of the music, when not crushing your tympanic membrane, is pretty bland. A few samples litter the tracks, but they are not too distracting, and often a bit humorous ("The Jump Off").
It’s a pity I’ll never attend a show by a band like this, as I’d like to experience some of the chest caving density up close and personal, but I don’t feel like avoiding the size 9 Vans of a 90lb scenester for the entire show.
