Review Summary: Kids Like Us has moved forward from their previous style and matured into a southern hardcore outift that is a force to be reckoned with.
Hailing from the home of many great traditional hardcore bands, Kids Like Us has forged a path for themselves through endless touring and a discernable growth since their inception. Their debut full length "The 80's Are Dead" was very undeniably punk and featured many under a minute length songs and a typical punk vocal approach from Lars Lundquist. Since then they've put four albums under their belt and progressed immensely. Their newest effort "The Game" was a massive shift in style for the band and risked the loss of many fans, but does it do well?
As a whole the album focuses on the bands hometown and declares their love and pride for the south. From the song titles ("Serves the South"), to the lyrical content, the album's theme relies greatly on their own stomping grounds. This theme is very obvious through the music as well. The riffs and hooks hold onto a large piece of KLU's punk past, but are also very southern based. The band mantains a sort of "twang" throughout the album, all the while relying heavily on the hardcore sound they have perfected.
As the band pulled away from their previous styles of very straight forward punk, Lars himself has also changed his vocal style to match the new direction. Losing all qualities of his high pitched punk yells, Lars has adopted a very gritty, harsh growl. Lars is not only the highlight of their live show but also the entire album, his lyrics and vocal style shining through the rest of the instrumentation.
Not to say, however, there is anything to be desired from the rest of the band. Lead and single guitarist Logan lays down riffs that alone display the bands new pursuit of musical style. They're fast and gritty, yet lead into very southern shred sections ("Streets of Fire") and pseudo hardcore breakdowns. No longer do the songs last under a minute long or center completely around punk-beat circle pit parts, as Kids Like Us has strived to make a more mature and complete album. The bass lines this time around are clearly heard and give the music a definitive groove, complimented greatly by spot on drumming.
All in all, Kids Like Us has moved away from their punk roots, but kept a definite tinge of the genre in their current songs. The album fuses hardcore, punk and southern rock flawlessly. One of the only downsides of "The Game" is in the area of repititivness, where many songs sound the same and at one point directly rip off a riff from themesleves on a previous song. Despite the few flaws that riddle the CD, Kids Like Us have put out another great effort that doesn't sound the same as their previous albums, and definitively "Serves the South."
