Review Summary: Rewriting history.
The year was 2010, and post-hardcore was at a bit of a crossroads – the genre’s mainstream direction had leaned towards metalcore influences, resulting in a slew of copycat bands wearing black tee shirts and stealing each other’s riffs.
Thrice had morphed into more of a bluesy, hard rock band and were far removed from the upstarts who wrote
The Artist in the Ambulance nearly a decade earlier.
Thursday were a year away from calling it a career.
Refused were still ***ing dead (although, not for much longer by that point).
He Is Legend had one foot out the door. Perhaps most notably for the purposes of this review -
Glassjaw had been MIA for years, aside from a few one-off singles that would eventually turn into
Our Color Green and
Coloring Book. The genre was absolutely starving for new blood that could carry the torch and breathe life into the scene, like the aforementioned bands had all done for many years.
Enter
letlive. They had been around for years – seven, to be exact – toiling away and releasing albums of questionable quality. Their image was a clear rip-off of Glassjaw, from the logo similarities down to vocalist Jason Aalon Butler’s public worship of Daryl Palumbo. It seemed like they were the last band that would come out of nowhere and become the hottest commodity in underground music – but that’s exactly what happened. 2010’s
Fake History came out at the picture-perfect time to catch lightning in a bottle. During a period of little saturation, the band had found a way to borrow something from all of their industry idols, repackage it and turn it into a commercially-successful blend of blistering riffs, scathing lyrics and soaring choruses. Out of nowhere, letlive. found themselves featured on several high-profile tours as a supporting act. Butler became an overnight sensation, and word spread about his bizarre on-stage antics – everything from fighting his own security guards to hanging upside down from the rafters for multiple songs in a row. It seemed like they were poised to entrench themselves as industry titans. After re-releasing Fake History in 2011 with three additional bonus tracks, the hype had two years to grow to a fever pitch.
And then,
The Blackest Beautiful happened. For one reason or another, bands rarely seem to deliver on follow-ups to their most critically acclaimed albums, and this was no exception. I can vividly remember hearing the leaks for the first time and enjoying the songs, but the mix was horrible. “No matter”, we all said in unison – “I’m sure the final mix will sound like Fake History.” But to our collective dismay, the final version that was released
was indeed the leaked version. Butler had apparently decided last-minute to completely change the mixing from the original version, trying to go for more of a grungy, raw sound. The result took what should have been the album that made letlive. the biggest band in the genre and neutered it entirely. There wasn’t an issue with the songs themselves – hell, the highs here may even eclipse the highs of Fake History at times – but they were buried under arguably the worst mixing job of the entire 2010s. And while the album wasn’t a
complete failure by any means, by the time we arrived at 2016’s
If I’m The Devil, the band were fading out of relevance in a big way. Shortly thereafter came a predictable breakup, and Butler went on to create punk/hip-hop crossover outfit
Fever 333. For all intents and purposes, letlive. were dead in the water.
Fast forward more than a decade – out of the blue, the band posted a small teaser with a revised album cover. Speculation had circled for years that they weren’t happy with how the final product was received by the fanbase – was this
finally the redemption for the album that wore the crown of “Worst Produced Album” for years on end? The remix release date was confirmed, originally released exclusively on vinyl, and now we have the digital copy available for streaming. And while I’m not going to sit here and claim that the remaster now puts this on the same level as Fake History – because it simply doesn’t – it
does give this album the facelift it has always desperately needed. There are so many amazing moments that were obscured by the original mix which have now floated to the surface. I would argue that Butler’s voice was actually better here than it was on Fake History, showcasing immense range and energy that far exceeds your average frontman. “Empty Elvis” in particular takes everything that made this band blow up and packages it into an inferno of fury, with a sensational chorus that has stuck in my brain since first hearing it all those years ago.
Despite a few odd features (particularly the remixed version of The Dope Beat) and compositional changes, make no mistake – this is an improvement in virtually every way over the original release. Had this version been the one to hit the market in 2013, there is a good chance letlive. would have exploded into mainstream popularity instead of going out with a whimper. They’ve been playing live shows recently with excellent turnouts, and even though it’s been years since they were relevant, the cult following of fans who stuck around have embraced screaming their lyrics like it’s still 2011. Naysayers will still hate them regardless of this release, and time will tell if this leads to the release of new material - but even if this is all we get in the end, it will be a proper send-off for a band that once had so much promise.