Review Summary: Sonic Valium
Beatdown has to be among the laziest movements in music history. It’s the only genre where you can get away with down tuned, distorted guitars beyond pitch recognition, repetitive 3-minute long breakdowns masquerading as songs, and albums written exclusively in binary tablature. Now I'm not saying every beatdown album adheres to these barebones blueprints, but Falsifier definitely don’t push any boundaries. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then these Canadian moshers have another gem for you to add to your collection. If not, avoid this like the plague.
Falsifier’s sophomore effort
Life in Death does little to deviate from the conventional beatdown formula. The guitars are atonal and crunchy, the riffs plod along at a snail’s pace, and diversity is nowhere to be found. The good news is Falsifier do show signs of musical ability, such as their use of atmospheric leads and the occasional groove that actually compliments the ultra slow tempo. The vocalist’s growls are fierce and unforgiving, offering a meatier texture to compliment the dense guitar tones, and the drumming utilizes a modicum of technical skill with intermittent thrash beats and speedy double bass.
Unfortunately,
Life in Death is still just another faceless chug-fest that could’ve been released by
Black Tongue,
Emmure, or
The Acacia Strain and no one would question its authenticity. Sure, ‘I Am Death’ has the funniest breakdown in the history of recorded sound, but these tracks have little to no identity other than being as heavy as humanly possible, which it turns out is boring as fuck. Unless you enjoy this type of music,
Life in Death is hardly worth your attention, let alone your time.
