Review Summary: We Get Paid To Collect Bodies
Lions Lions is regarded by many as one of the most underrated bands in the New England 'core scene which is heavily overpopulated with many bands trying to achieve the goal of being famous and possessing critical acclaim. Their release “From What We Believe” put a smile on the faces of fans and critics alike and bumped them up a little bit in the “fame and acclaim” department being lucky enough to headline a couple shows in New England and tour extensively with other bands. With this being said, “The Path We Take” will widen that grin for longtime listeners and hopefully bump them up further.
To start off, this EP is quite creative and can be described as a Post Hardcore and PopPunk-esque hybrid sound as the members come from a plethora of very well known Massachusetts bands from the aforementioned genres. These members come from Therefore I Am, Vanna, and A Loss For Words, this diversity of musicianship is clearly shown in this EP and is executed very well. This combination of talent and diversity is hard to find due to the fact these hybrid bands are typically a mess of breakdowns and the overuse of the 808 system. Luckily enough, these elements are not used in this album. You will not hear an 808 or chug-chugchugchuggachu-chug or the “***ING MOVE” bits bands put in to please the pit ninjas.
The opening song displays a guitar intro that sounds very much like a straight up Hardcore song for the first 20 seconds going into more melodic sweeps. The song then goes right into the first real track of The EP called “Undo Alarm” which is a very typical Lions Lions song format of spacey, melodic guitars, and steady punk influenced drumming, and to be honest, the least interesting song in the album, although it displays a very great bass and drum segment towards the center of the song.
Killing Your Grace is the next song on this, which begins with some melodic guitar and drumming, it is the most vocally diverse song employing both singing and screaming. However, it is the only song in The EP that employs screaming which is a disappointment to me because I feel the screaming is incredibly well executed and worthy of more usage in the EP beyond that segment.
The following song is entitled Are You Ready To Fly, this is where the clean vocals are at their most powerful. The guitars show a ton of technicality and harmony that achieve a goal of being fierce without having to be chugchugalachugchug. The drummer also shows off his talent in this song extremely well bridging to the end of the song employing a roll and blastbeat combination leading to a more Hardcore tempo which I enjoyed thoroughly. The ending segment features the classic Lions Lions verse of “Hold your breath before this wave crashes over us, hide all your valuables and keep your kids locked up, with a job like this, we get paid to collect bodies” sung by Lyndsey Gunnulfsen of Operation Guillotine, a Massachusetts Metalcore band. I particularly like how they did this paying homage to their own music to a song most Lions Lions enthusiasts love.
The fifth song, is a cover of the song All The Things That I’ve Done by The Killers. I really love this cover song though, its groovy and fun and definitely shows a more playful side to the band.
The final full song on this is entitled “The Atlas” and is a re-recording of a single they released in April. My gripe with this song is that they went and re-recorded it. I am much more a fan of their original recording which had much more energy behind it. But this song isn’t a complete bomb to be honest as I still enjoy it and can still feel the energy in it. The gang vocals (which are becoming a cliché and a bore to many 'core enthusiasts) find their place here and add a ton of fun to the song.
The outro Destination: Harbinger is your typical outro and nothing special. It begins with an air-raid siren and a woman speaking Russian. I don’t see how this connects with the rest of the song which draws a dark atmosphere to me. This song would have been better if it was a full song and I would have much more to say about it.
Pity that this is an EP for I would of rater it higher and I would of loved to hear more from these guys and see what they have up their sleeve for their growing fanbase. I definitely recommend these guys to anyone interested in these genres to give it a listen.
