I can't think of anyone who doesn't have a special place in their hearts for Bane, well actually that's a lie - let me rephrase; I can't think of anyone hardcore who doesn't have a special place in their hearts for Bane. God only knows what the rest of this sorry society listens to in their place - Girls Aloud probably, or that creepy man-mutant that molests kids.
Four years after Bane went a bit Kerouac and upped into the wilderness they're back and they've clearly spent every single one of those lost years eating bugs and bathing in waterfalls because nothing at all has changed since their definitive slice of punk-infused hardcore ‘Give Blood' - a release that cemented Bane as the band that put the ‘posi' in ‘core'. This is life-affirming fist-in-the-air feel-good-core, as fresh as a sudden shower on an afternoon stroll and just as invigorating; oozing with raw energy they're a band that should come with some sort of notice from the Surgeon General warning people that they could see a dramatic increase in their lifespan just from being in the immediate vicinity.
As solid as it is you can't help but think that maybe after four long years they could've perhaps produced something a little bit stronger. The sound is sadly muffled and somewhere along the line you get the feeling that they were really let down in the studio, it's struggling to meet half-an-hour in total length, and finally a few little pieces don't quite work out; ‘End With An Ellipses' has some weird-ass chord-progression right where there should be a breakdown or other more conventional bridge and it's frankly unBanelike making it a rather poor move on the part of a band worshiped for their sincerity, simplicity and stylistic purity.
Fortunately Bane functioning at seventy is better then the vast majority of bands functioning at the full one-hundred, lyrically they continue to fuse uncut emotion with insight to produce the kind of song-craft that puts most emo to shame; anyone who fails to be moved by "There is no mistake that I'm not free to make/all because of six strings/stretched across a board" or the passionate pledge of "When Armageddon's been locked and loaded/I will come back for you" is advised to undergo a strict course of group therapy until their feelings return.
The powerfully understated closer, aptly titled ‘Swan Song', brushes with Evergreen Terrace-style clean singing but in its context it's effective enough; the vocals are fed fairly sedately into the mix as a bed upon which the delivery we're more familiar with is laid. It's a good example of how to do that little something different without f*cking with the listener's comfort zone - a lot like my first day at primary school where my mum walked me to the bus stop and then drove after the school bus to walk me to the school gates.
A true story and one just as gently warming as ‘The Note'
Overall this album is worth the listen, but still I can't help but feel it could have been better, I mean, it's Bane for crying out loud.
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P.S. I'm trying to work on the length!
