Review Summary: i hope it never ends
Prior to the band’s 2007 album Midnight In America, Modern Life Is War’s mediocre consistency was almost reassuring. Thanks to a poor vocal performance, an overabundance of gang shouts and songs that simply didn’t last long enough to have any kind of staying power, the band’s debut My Love. My Way. was a very poor record, and the much praised Witness that came after it was only slightly less of a bore. Largely down to Jeffrey Eaton simply lacking the ability to carry the songs vocally, none of their songs ever had much staying power, and alongside their EP created a trio of records that, while not terrible, were the victim of poor frontmanning and increasingly lazy lyricism.
Luckily, all cheesy hardcore acts have their time to shine, and the band suddenly served up a delicious helping of infectious guitar parts on the aforementioned Midnight. Witness definitely hinted at greatness but the album’s dynamics were sparse and sounded like a wasted opportunity when paired with the comparatively ferocious sounding drums. But on its successor, the band evolved into a curmudgeonly beast, bringing track after track of punk-inflected, gravelly hardcore. While the record was melodic, it brought plenty of heavier elements into the band’s music and proved they could write a full record without cramming it full of filler-ish 1 minute tracks.
Since their breakup, MLIW have had plenty of competition for the crown of melodic hardcore kings. Have Heart broke up long before their reunion, but Defeater and More Than Life now presented themselves as competent storytellers who could also write infectious, memorable music. But, with ‘the wave’ diminishing in popularity, there’s a definite gap in the market. It’s tough to know what to make of something like Fever Hunting, especially considering how intense and booming the production (courtesy of Kurt Ballou). The band have never sounded more intense, and on opener Old Fears, New Frontiers a southern guitar melody rescinds behinds Eaton’s much improved on snarling.
This is packed with catchy songs. Media Cunt’s refrain is impossible not to sing along to, and Health, Wealth & Peace’s breathless desperation make them sound like a band on a mission to remind everyone why they loved them in the first place. At first glance, the melodies here seem a little weak and infrequent, but they actually masquerade as such while subtly unfolding behind the increasingly tiresome vocals and make their presence seem necessary. The slower songs where there’s very little melody at all (Dark Water) are definitely worse than their upbeat counterparts (Cracked Sidewalk Surfer). Unfortunately, songs like the one just mentioned also mark a point in the album where almost inevitable repetition springs forth.
The vocals are solid here, but their weaknesses show towards the end where most of the emotion becomes forced along with the painfully overused riffs. Initially, the record seems haunting, but in reality the only scary thing about this album is how little material they seem to have come up with in their seven year absence. Like the last album, flashes of punkish-spite leak through, but the same old boring melodic hardcore vocals and riffs seem to be the dominant force here. Fuax-epics such as Chasing My Tail are hilariously non-climactic, and something as monotonous as Blind Are Bleeding (which is actually fairly reminiscent of Self Defense Family’s newer output) could only be excuse by a band who are such damn good songwriters AND musicians. It’s just a shame they don’t show much of that here, because drummer Tyler Oleson aside, not one member of the band has made an effort to follow up on their contributions to the cataclysmically powerful MIA.
