What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
Water Torture might be the current Kings of bass and drums powerviolence scene, but Milwuakee’s boisterous duo LIFES aren’t like to recognise such a crown and still keep their unyielding loyalty to the old guard of 90’s era chunky elastic bass and drum hardcore acts. LIFES are hardcore subsided into the top-soil powerviolence strata and throughout their 9 minute scrap around a persistent fetor of this-band-is-my-anger-managment-and-the-only-thing-stopping-me-from-going-ape-shit hardcore therapy becomes the justification for the bands low hanging knotty burly bass grooves complimented by equally low end congested bellows. There is a dash of feral adventurism in those bass progressions too, right from the get go launching track New Flag acquaints us with those nimble bass swirls, a fluttering trait that we see throughout scattered across a bedrock of traditional bass and drum type hardcore, but other times things go a bit in the backburner albeit temporarily as exemplified in Expectations where they let the bass simmer and saturate the atmosphere in static drudgery hulking forward in wide pleasant lunges. What is best in LIFES? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear Powerviolence.
http://grindtodeath.com/zine/review-lifes-demo-2013
AND FROM TIGHTTOTHENAIL.COM:
There seems to be an influx of people starting two-person powerviolence acts. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, this one question will always surface: “do they sound like Iron Lung?”.
Lifes are a two piece from Milwaukee that feature members from bands like Get Rad and Conquest for Death. They employ a Godstomper style; just drums and bass, clearly differing from all the other seven string and drum acts, which have become many and frequent. This demo here isn’t the best recording, but it’s the type of basement recording that launches bands into the stratosphere. It grows on the listener. How many people ever heard Man is the Bastard and said immediately how amazing they were?
The demo starts off with “New Flag”, an anti-government statement seeped in crust punk ethos. Upon first listen one could say they’re just another powerviolence act, but Lifes mixes it up. They play a form of hardcore crust with the awkward stop-start PV influence which really isn’t heard in the “scene”. “Expectations” starts off with a sludge induced breakdown that leads into machine-gun snare drumming, culminating with fastcore goodness. It breaks down into a two-step riff and the song finishes. Examining this, there’s a clear influence from those old PV acts without necessarily hero worshipping them. There’s enough here to segregate Lifes from the rest of the pack; they mix up their assault and said assault is timed well. Too many times are there tracks by other acts that opt for the fast and the heavy; Lifes is different altogether. Not only do they play what powerviolence should be, they change their style within songs. “Fucking Thief” is an example. The changing of style, the changing of signature — Lifes are running the gamut on the older style of powerviolence, the one crafted by acts like Neanderthal. Of course, no PV demo would be complete without “joke” songs, like “Party by the Lifes”, which is an eight-second speed attack.
Lifes are in middle of a scene which heralds Infest and Man Is The Bastard, but too many acts opt to play like the former because the latter proves to be too difficult. There’s no hero worship here, there's an act trying to break the mold of what powerviolence is. Lifes adds creativity to their music in a scene which dismisses it. It’s one thing to attack relentlessly, and it is another to step back and approach a genre differently. Without that kind of creativity, we would be stuck forever looping the same tracks by the same bands for eternity.
http://tighttothenail.com/review-lifes-demo/
DON'T BELIEVE THEM? NEITHER DO WE. COME WATCH US FLUB THROUGH SOME SONGS AT ONE OF THESE SHOWS:
TUESDAY JULY 9TH @ COCOON ROOM IN MILWAUKEE, WI W/ COKE BUST, TOYS THAT KILL, TENEMENT, SHORT WALK & MILORGANAUT.
https://www.facebook.com/events/155192621318280/?ref=3
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 7TH @ QUARTERS IN MILWAUKEE, WI W/ CLOUD RAT, CRIATURAS, MILORGANAUT & SHUT IN.
https://www.facebook.com/events/203043516518999/?fref=ts
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 29TH @ ALBION HOUSE IN CHICAGO, IL W/ PIT OF SPIKES, CALLOUS, PILLAGE & NO TRUCE.
https://www.facebook.com/events/615742468445636/?ref=22
THANKS FOR ALL THE KIND WORDS & SUPPORT.
