EDIT: This is a pretty horrible review, but I'm leaving it up because they've gotten fucking huge since I've written this, and I think this album gets overshadowed by Witness (which as great as it is, is an inferior album) severely. I highly doubt anyone on this site can write another review for this and sound like a less of a moron than me in this review. So fuck it. Here you go.
Hype is a weird thing. It can make or break a band"s reputation; more often the former. I can"t think of the countless albums I have bought based merely on good word only to find myself sour and missing my ten bucks. However, such is not the case with Modern Life is War, a band whose nut hairs I had witnessed being ridden extremely hard late last year by my contemporaries. So, upon seeing My Love. My Way. at an irresistible five dollars one day, I decided to pick it up. Thank fu
cking God, because this album is tremendous.
MLIW play a brand of slightly melodic, extremely emotional hardcore. MLIW focus their energy on huge, emotional sing alongs, intelligent, extremely well written lyrics, and some beautiful guitar work not seen often enough in hardcore.
Every song on My Life. My War. is a godd
amn near-masterpiece. The album flows fluidly from start to finish, never at any point losing momentum. There are the huge, emotional songs like "By the Sea", as well as the slightly more traditional hardcore stylings of songs like "Yesterday"s Trash".
One of my favorite things about MLMW is the lyrics, which are mainly about picking yourself up from a shi
tty situation and moving on. Of course, nothing wholly original but extremely well-executed. "Momentum", for example, tells a short story, narrating in the first perspective, "Down the old staircase...I"m walking out the door. I feel lost here tonight, everything has changed since that summer before. Stumbling forward...I"m glancing back. There's no one in the window begging me to come back." And the best track on the album, "First and Ellen", also features the best lyrics. Opening with "Is it wrong to want to walk away when every day of your life looks like today and today looks like a rotting lifeless gray?" and closing with the huge sing along, "Keep your faith in the path that's growing narrow. Kill the doubt inside your head. We overcome. We push ahead." Combined with the increasingly impressive musicianship, it"s hard not be motivated by the time MLMW comes to an all too soon stop.
There are very few hardcore records that have struck such a chord with me, emotionally as well as musically, as My Life. My War. This is a record that every hardcore fan and fan of emotional, intelligent music should pick up. Believe the hype.
