Life, Destruct To Stop The Conflict

Released
9th October 2024
Label 
Desolate
Back In Mid-February
Format

12 Inch

Black

Out of stock. For availability enquiries please get in touch with us at info@foundationvinyl.com

Tokyo’s Life and Richmond, Virginia’s Destruct are both purveyors of darkly metallic crust, the former one of the founding creators of the genre over thirty years ago, the latter at the forefront of the contemporary wave of bands taking it forward.  And while both bands are exploring similar sonic terrains, they both bring quite distinct interpretations to bear.

Nature exists not only as a resource for humans, co-existence is what saves both sides, we humans are not special’ (Losing Biodiversity, Life)

Life focus on unleashing an almost elemental wall of noise.  Heavily distorted guitars, cleaner bass, roared vocals, and almost crumpled sounding, cymbal drenched drums are barbarously fused.  And just when it feels as if this savage bombardment may overwhelm, the band prove unerringly adept at offering just a glimpse of respite – surges of groove laden riffage, bass and drum fuelled eruptions, and frenetic solos. Personal highlights among their five tracks are the rampaging opener Don’t Give Up Hope and the absolutely rabid title track.

‘Loss makes the road to now, where death sings in the wind, dream of peaceful tomorrow, love and hope instead’ (We Survive, Destruct)

Destruct deliver six tracks that match this fierce velocity, but with each of its elements perhaps more singularly delineated.  I would hesitate to call them more restrained, it is rather that their sound is, perhaps, a more consciously disciplined one.  The vocals remain guttural, the drums a touch less primitive and equally awash with cymbal.  The guitars are, however, more discernibly front and centre, the riffs unfurling in menacing waves, interspersed with searing metallic solos.  The escalating violence of Endured and the crushing final track We Survive perfectly embody this brutal intensity.

The lyrical preoccupations of both bands – the wastefulness of war, environmental degradation, social oppression – form a similar unifying cohesion across the album.  Life favour a direct call-to-action, Destruct lean into a more bleakly poetic imagery.  A powerful, generation spanning split.

—Foundation Vinyl